Beyond an Angels Grace
by OliverQueen1
Summary: Grace Blakely had always been wonderfully content in her life - that was until a man flew out of the sky in a cobalt-blue, unorthodox spaceship. He swept her off her feet and gave her the stars, her brilliant light shining ever brighter with every new discovery made. But, not everything can remain uncorrupted by the horrors of the Universe; especially not the beauty of innocence.
1. Prologue

**Prologue**

 **-The Future-**

It had been a very long time since Grace had felt peace.

It was so rare that even the notion of it became a long-forgotten concept, so lost, so broken and misshapen that even if she were to have it, she probably wouldn't even acknowledge or recognise it. maybe it was meant to be this way – to be so lost in the chaos around her, to be so numb to everything that she could simply move on and keep trundling forward; a reflex that had become akin to blinking or breathing, a habit vital to live.

But, maybe that was why that night was so truly different.

Maybe it was the glistening water that trembled slightly with the gentle breeze, maybe it was the coolness of the wooden jetty beneath her, or maybe, just maybe it was the gleaming stars above that provoked such warmth, hope and imagination; things that were almost lost to her – a fleeting glimpse of a dream that would disappear forever once her eyes blinked open and reality washed the vibrant colours away, as if they were a footprint to close to the oncoming tide.

Maybe that's all that she was – a dream, a reality that wasn't real or true, which could never truly make an impact on the world which surrounded her. She wasn't running, she wasn't a piece in another escape plan and she most certainly wasn't vital in anyones survival. She was simply a girl; one who after all she had been through, finally found somewhere to rest, to contemplate silently in the serenity surrounding her – finally letting her thoughts become free, uncharted and boundless.

Grace knew she was better off as a dream. Something like her should never have been allowed to be created. Only she was, and the world was no better for it. The gentle zephyr blew across her face and tingled her nose with its brief chill. It resonated within her hollow bones, stirring something within her she thought long lost. She closed her eyes letting the breeze uplift, swirl and steal all of her thoughts, leaving her gently smiling into the distance – as if nothing she had experienced had changed her, as if she was the same woman that left for a better life all those years ago.

The more Grace thought about it, the more she realised how close she was to the peace she thought impossible. This simple idea struck her a considerable amount. Her eyes suddenly opened as she numbly moved a stray strand of loose hair from her face and stared wide-eyed out into the water. How could she have missed it? was she truly that far gone? The absurdity of it all was astronomical and was even enough to provoke a few disbelieving laughs to slip through barely contained lips. It wasn't long before they all burst out like a flurry of madness into the still night, leaving the lonesome woman sitting on the edge of the jetty laughing manically into the silence.

She supposed it was always going to come down to this. There was never really any doubt or even choice in the matter when she really thought about it. It had been obvious when she met him; all light and smiles with a promise of adventure beyond anything she could possibly _dream_ to imagine. It was obvious when the danger descended upon them, when she began to easily accept all the loss and sorrow along the way – when she almost completely detached herself from her emotions and stopped caring about the lives that surrounded her. It became _overwhelmingly_ obvious when his personality would begin to shift into a vengeful, self-justified _God_ that would undoubtedly cause them both immense miseries, no matter how brief or rare the outburst. But, perhaps, it became the most apparent when she began to see how necessary it was to their very survival to act like that, thus beginning to truly understand the horrors he had faced and the trauma that would undoubtably surface once pushed to his absolute limit. The tragedy was enough to make anyone go mad, and when up against what they were? Well, it was natural that it could break someone.

Oh yes. It was all so very obvious, very, _very_ obvious indeed.

Only she had missed it entirely.

As the realisation shook away her years and years of imbedded denial, her shoulders began to tremble when the tears of her manic laughter slowly changed into tones of sobbed hysteria as she slowly, but completely, fell apart. Just a glimpse of her now compared to a few years' prior would make her unrecognisable. She had been so vibrant, lively, kind, gracious, talkative, compassionate, merciful and so utterly and _undeniably_ , human. Now, she was none of those things. She was as far removed from human as possible, despite what her bloodwork would clearly state.

Just the idea of the person that she had now become bore its way through her mind, into her pores and dredged its way through her like microscopic knives in the bloodstream, feeding her hate and self-loathing with pain she felt she rightly deserved for becoming the sadistic and cynical creature that now occupied the shoes of a long-dead and truly cheerful past. What she currently was and what she stood for could _never_ be justified.

He always told her to not blame or lose herself, that she was beautiful inside and out, that her light was the most pure, wonderful and brilliant thing in the entire Universe; that it gave him hope that a better future could exist for them and that it was something worth fighting for with all their souls…

…he was just too naïve and in denial to notice that that light had already flickered out of existence.

There was no hope. Not anymore. Not for either of them.

They had both hurt and caused so much pain, especially her. He, at least, _tried_ to heal and help others whilst she only hung around to tear out his stitches. That was who she was, all she would ever be. Grace had long since proved her younger self wrong by repeatedly doing the one thing she thought herself never capable of doing.

 _Murder_.

She had taken so many lives and destroyed so many families and futures that she had begun to forget the names of the dead of who's' blood would forever stain her fingertips. Maybe it wasn't even a matter of forgetting, maybe she just didn't care enough to remember. After all that would make more sense if it were the latter, she supposed, because in the end wasn't that what all killers do?

What _monsters_ do.

No monster deserved the beauty the Universe had to offer. Not the stars, the sun or even the simple every-day wonders that all people took for granted, missed, avoided and wrote-off – just like she always had. Grace wondered if that had been why she chose that place, so remote, secluded and so undeniably beautiful.

The jetty she was sat upon extended far out onto the iridescent lake that spread out all around her. Thought the slats were an old weather-worn brown, the stars and moon seemed to change and illuminate its pigment, giving it a blue-ish tint similar to the water surrounding. The distant silhouettes of far-off land were obscured by a soft, hazy mist which gently lifted from the water into the crystalline sky of deep obsidian. This was where Graces attention was drawn, to the cluster of radiant white lights that shone thousands of years out of her reach – stars she once believed to be in her grasp.

A forlorn smile slowly began to adorn her lips as she gently raised her arm towards the lustrous sky, her fingertips outstretching longingly as the once hysteric tears dripped silently down her face, leaving splodges of dampness on her burnt and torn shirt.

 _Yes, this must be what peace felt like._

It was calming and subtle, honest and enlightening, brutal yet fair. It opened your mind and allowed you to think.

And think she did.

She retracted her hand and looked out towards the sea, a steely and determined expression sweeping its way across her features. She briefly closed her eyes, sighed and gave herself a small nod. When she opened then again there was a clarity in them that had been terribly absent.

Grace knew what must and needed to be done.

As her grip tightened around the edges of the jetty she came to the realisation that not ever in a million years or lifetimes, would she ever change a single moment. He gave her a sense of life that she never knew possible, showed her the most extraordinary places and introduced her to people she never knew could ever exist. He opened her mind and – even if that was what ultimately led to her downfall – she was immensely grateful for it. he may have given her the tools needed to become what she was, but in the end, it was all her own doing. The least she could do was this small courtesy for a man who meant the entire Universe to her – that _gave_ the entire Universe to her.

She looked to the sky one last time, smiling lovingly into the stars once more. He would be back for her soon, no doubt, but by then it would be far too late.

"Thank you," she whispered quietly.

Grace closed her eyes, removed her hands from the splintering wooden slats and slipped silently into the water below her.

 **Hey so this is my first run with DW fanfiction and just in general on this site! This will keep going into season one onwards, so next time you see Grace she will be new, at the beginning and very different.**

 **Please comment what you think as I love to know what you like and what I could do better!**

 **-Live long and prosper.**


	2. Chapter 1 - An Alien Encounter

Chapter 1

 **Sunday 12** **th** **December, 2004**

It was a peaceful day, inexplicit and as conventional as one would expect from the second Sunday before Christmas. Some would forget the day all together and simply fill their mind with burred images of rushed and panic-stricken present shopping, work, or quite simply, if they did so happen to remember that fleeting day, they would claim it as unremarkable and nothing unusual for such an unimportant day of the year. However, one woman alone would highly attest the this generally accepted sentiment; for her experience was far from monotonous. It was colourful and bright, loud and exhilarating, worrisome and dangerous. That day was to become the most pivotal moment in her existence as the impossible and extraordinary had – quite literally – landed at her doorstep, changing her life forever.

She did not expect to be witness to an explosion beyond anything she could have ever predicted to have seen. She did not expect her ears to be stripped of every sound and paralysed by the bone-quaking noises that boomed so viciously loud that not even her triple glazed windows could have been enough to act as protection from the sheer power of the blast. All the vibrations that managed to resonate in her ears simply melded into one singular, high-pitched note that drowned every sound into oblivion.

It was excruciatingly painful to experience. Eyes shut unbreakably, ears clamped by hands, more akin to vices than flesh, and her mouth stretched open in a silent howl – too filled with pain to emanate noise.

Then it was over.

Breathing heavily, sweaty-palmed and shaking, she pulled herself in staggered movements up towards the window above her. Pupils dilated as eyes caught sight of something she never believed could be witnessed, at least not during her lifetime, or many lifetimes beyond, she supposed. For before her was familiar, yet, foreign but inescapably and undeniably not of this world.

For smoking not far from her home, in the front garden, was a smouldering mass of wood, painted cobalt-blue, angrily spitting embers and fire faeries as if it were rejecting the pips from a tangerine. The windows on the side were a pale-glowing, white light that illuminated and contrasted against the dark and highly saturated surrounding, giving it the distinct feeling of something other… other than human and other in the ways in which many would not even fathom to believe.

But, what struck the woman as truly odd was not the fire or smoke or intense explosion. No. It was the impeccably pristine exterior of the wreckage. Where there should have been scattered debris there was nothing but rubble that was previously there. Where the flames should have snaked their way across the paintwork and tentatively start to peel it back, was an immaculate coat, impervious to damage.

Another oddity she found was how eerily it resembled a police box from the 1950s.

However, those thought were abruptly stopped as a figure emerged from the doors still alight and burning vibrantly. The silhouette took two steps forward before collapsing to its knees and falling further as consciousness failed to remain.

The woman instantly hurried to her feet and bolted out of her room, clumsily ran down the stairs, shook on the nearest jacket, haphazardly slipped her feet into a pair of welly boots, opened her front door and pelted into the chilled night with a pace beyond anything she had ever been capable of achieveing; sprinting to whatever crashed and currently lay sprawled across the frozen ground, littered with Winters frost.

She reached the site of the crash in seconds. Halting for a brief moment, she found herself utterly mesmerised by the impossible, raging inferno of brilliant orange that burned, but never destroyed and travelled endlessly into the massive expanse of stars that littered the blue-tinged darkness above. She could have been trapped under its enchantment for all eternity if it wasn't for the guttural groan that came from below her.

Wasting no more time she crouched down, grabbing what appeared to now be the arm of a man, and pulled with all of her strength to get him to move. She knew herself not to be strong enough to lift him but that didn't stop her no matter how fruitless that may be.

To her own surprise she managed to lift him; if only for a second. One measly second that cause so must ache and trouble than it was worth as as soon as she had him upright another explosion tossed them back to ground. Whipping her head towards the crash she decided that she could not afford to lose anymore time to yet another blast. It was nowhere near the velocity of the original, but that could not possibly prevent a terrible worry from stetting in. so, with haste, she began to drag the limp man across the ground towards her house – groaning and grunting with the difficulty dragging a large mass of dead weight possessed.

-p-

She was worried.

Worried and exited and curious beyond belief as she sat on a backwards-turned chair and stared at the impossible thing that lay across her sofa before her; wide-eyed and slack-jawed. No matter which way she looked at it that most certainly, in no way, was how she expected her Sunday to end up.

He was an alien. A god damn _bloody_ alien. Oh, how fantastic it all was.

A being, not of this planet, probably possessing some strange abilities and here he was, laying completely unconscious on her old couch with a woollen blanket strewn across him.

It definitely wasn't exactly the conventional setting for a supposed "first contact" but then again would it have ever been normal knowing the state her people tented to get themselves into with new things? They tended to jump and scream and ball and – and she really just couldn't be arsed with it all. Why make a giant commotion about something that would most likely be harmless? It was understandable why there were no public extra-terrestrial encounters, honestly why would anyone want to travel half way across the solar system only to be met with hysterical _nut-cases_ that were pleading to not be probed? They'd arrive, take one look at the state of the human race, instantly say "nope" and blast off back to wherever they came from.

They probably had a massive long-running joke about humans, or, they just dared each other to see who could last longest without some middle-aged woman screaming and throwing a handbag at them.

It definitely would be interesting to see how this one would act. Would he be like a spider and be more afraid of her than she of him? Or, would everything be true and she could end up having her brain sucked out through the McDonalds straw that was on the coffee table between them?

 _Maybe I should move the straw…_

Leaning forwards on her chair precariously, she eyed the man intently before focusing solely on the potential plastic drinking device of _death_. Tongue poking out through her lips, she stretched out her fingers and just about grasped it when she was jolted backwards from the sudden noise that came from underneath the heaped blanket.

Shocked, she jolted backwards – straw in hand – and flew off the chair with as much grace as one could expect from someone that had the tendency to favour becoming a windmill over keeping dignified balance. Landing with a thud and a pained groan, she ended up angrily staring at the ceiling as if it were the reason she weas currently no better off than an up-turned tortoise.

 _At least I got the straw,_ the bitter thought swept over her.

Even the ceiling seemed to laugh at her, causing her eyes to roll in annoyance.

 _Why does the ceiling feel the need to laugh?_

 _But ceilings don't laugh…_

 _Oh my-_

"God!" In an instant her back whipped itself up into a sitting position as her head stopped just inches away from the alien man, now completely aware and crouching in front of her.

He chuckled, grinned and shook his head in amusement, "Not quite I'm afraid. Now, how'd you end up down there?"

Now she was at a loss. She only had one thought and that wasn't exactly the most intellectual thing that had crossed her mind; in fact, it may even be considered offensive. But she had to say something because it was getting awkward, he was staring, she was staring, time was passing and she was looking insane and his existence was insane and why couldn't she just say, well, something!

"Straw?"

 _Nice one._

At least it was technically the right answer.

It was undeniably embarrassing. He probably thought there was something wrong with her now. Honestly, who just opens a conversation with a one syllable word with no context and has no obvious relevance? No one, that's who.

Her eyes drifted towards his pocket, along with all her thoughts, as he dug around searching for something in desperation. What was it? a telephone? a teleporter? A random piece of space junk? Maybe it was-

With a high-pitched hum, blue light, silver casing and intense way the man focused as he moved the device over her; it suddenly became very clear what it was. A probe. This was almost certainly something really, really, _really_ , very not good. Never mind the straw, she was being analysed by a piece of alien technology that could have the potential to melt her flesh off her bones into a gloopy puddle on the ground. Given, that was a very unlikely scenario in all fairness, but, still, one could not take many chances with this strange man with his incredibly _noisy_ probing device.

Standing up quickly and backing up against the kitchen countertop, she wielded whatever she had access to in what she hoped was a serious and defensive stance, "Stay back! I have this-," she faltered briefly, before regaining confidence, "-this very incredibly dangerous weapon!"

It may have been a half-chewed McDonalds straw she was waving about somewhat aimlessly at the man, but at least there was some absolutely minuscule chance it was a foreign object to him.

Apparently, it was as miniscule as she though as it soon became very clear he knew exactly what a straw was. He was very amused and on the verge of laughing, but she wouldn't give up that easily; even as he took a few steps towards her, seemingly trying to put her at ease.

The straw was pushed out further, "Stay back! I'm warning you!" It wasn't exactly the most threatening thing she could come up with and by the look on the man's face, it certainly wasn't very believable either.

His hands raised in mock surrender, eyes lighting up in amusement, "While I'm sure that straw is very dangerous, and I can assure you I'm absolutely _terrified,_ I'm not going to hurt you…" he lifted up the glowing probe, "…sonic screwdriver. Not a probe. I could see the worry all over your face. Very obvious and a bit annoying, but you are human after all." He twirled the device before returning it to his pocket.

Grace didn't know what to think. A probe that wasn't a probe? A man that wasn't a man? A pocket that clearly wasn't a pocket and a police box that was anything but. Everything was upside-down, topsy-turvy, skewed violently to the left and here she was, in her pyjamas, brandishing a straw and most likely had a crazed look in her eyes that could rival crazy Bet down the road. It wasn't hard to understand what he was thinking. She was nuts, crazy and a bloody raging lunatic. It was just his luck that he ended with someone so obviously incompetent, that she probably couldn't survive day-to-day life; at least that's what she assumed he was thinking. Thoughts were so hard to pin down and the could often be read wrong and here she was trying to unscramble the minds inner workings for an alien man. It was ridiculous and preposterous and… she really needed to stop thinking.

She put the straw down, "Not a Probe?"

"Not a probe." Came her conformation. Although she was sure he wouldn't harm her in that moment, she was still unconvinced.

 _How can I trust him?_

"Well it definitely looked like some sort of probing activity, or scanning, or-or-or-" She was overwhelmed, that much was painstakingly clear. No matter how amazing it was to meet another person from a different planet, it wasn't something she expected to ever come across. Sure, she had always believed in life beyond Earth – it was ignorant not to; with the universe as big as it was and everything the human race had yet to see, it was naive to think that they were the sole forms of life to exist no matter which way you looked at it – but she just couldn't seem to register the absurdity of what had happened that night. Meeting an alien in the street? Fine. Seeing one on a train? Bit of a stretch, but okay. Having one crash in your garden, haul them unconscious into your house and put them on the sofa only for them to wake up and bung a noisy, glowing screwdriver in your face? No, that just wasn't okay.

 _Pull yourself together._

"I don't know about where you come from, but here on Earth we don't wave screwdrivers in peoples faces like you're doing a full-on body scan. You know it's just a bit weird." At least that sounded more like herself.

The man smiled, not unkindly, and took a few steps forward, "Noted. I'm The Doctor." He announced with just the _tiniest_ amount of cockiness.

 _Oh, his full of it!_

"Grace." She offered in return somewhat confused and partly just entertained by the seemingly normal, alien man before her. Well, aside from the name, that was slightly odd.

Then it hit her. He was probably confused beyond belief why he was in some strange woman's house. Maybe he thought she had abducted _him_! Maybe he was terrified beyond belief and didn't let it show in case she attacked _him_. She couldn't have that, it was completely terrible, but, then again, she had probably already declared herself non-threatening with the whole straw fiasco. But just in case that hadn't done the job…

"I haven't, like, abducted you, if-if that's what you're thinking," She began somewhat nervously, "I pulled you in here after I saw you collapse. Your ship, it crashed just outside and there was so much fire and smoke and ash and honestly, you're just lucky to be alive after that."

His reaction was just as she expected. His look of mirth dropped instantly as panic set firmly in. it was clear he hadn't remembered any of what had happened up until that moment. Grace felt so sorry for the man who called himself Doctor. It clearly wasn't something that happened too him often and anyone in his shoes would be completely terrified to find out that kind of news. So, when he abruptly spun on his heel and bolted towards the front door, it was not a surprise that he ran as fast as he possibly could to see what damage had been done; even less surprising when he did so without uttering another word to a very disorientated Grace.

It was just a tiny bit surprising when he came back.

* * *

S **o, there's chapter one whoop whoop. Sorry if it was rushed or bad I just felt I needed to get something out preferably this year. Since I'm terrible at these things and people usually skip these (I know I do) I'll just say thank you to anyone who reads this and please leave a comment on what you think is good/needs improvement/any general questions you might have about where this is going.**

 **See yous in the next chapter.**

 **-Live long and prosper.**


	3. Chapter 2 - Getting to Know You

A/N right so this chapter is a lot longer than the others so far and no adventure happens. It's all establishing the relationship between Grace and The Doctor and does character building. so, even though I would love it if you guys still read it, I completely understand if you only read for the action (which will be next chapter). thank you guys anyways and please comment what you think and if you have any theories.

* * *

Chapter Two

 **One Hour Later**

It wasn't long before The Doctor returned into Graces home.

After reaching his ship, still barely alight with the fires of the mighty explosion, it became quickly apparent that there was absolutely no possible way that he would be leaving that night. The machine wasn't broken or really even that damaged, she was just recalibrating; changing what her interior would look like so she could best represent the man that had lived in his formers shadow for far too long.

Ordinarily, this would never be a problem. Sadly, this man, this… _version_ would rather spend his company on nothing but the accusing whisper and deadly still of silence. He was not ready for company after all that he had suffered – _all the suffering he had caused_. Yes, he had been friendly to that blonde, straw-wielding woman, Grace, and it had terrified him. Acting confident, wonderful and charismatic was something he was no longer accustomed to. Yet, he spilled his words in such a way that he found the actions normal, second nature even.

He shook his head, taking in where he had landed. From where he stood, he could see that he was surrounded by fields. They were empty and barren, not one single animal occupied the lands as one would expect, they were completely immaculate to the point where he suspected that this had never been a home for livestock. There was a dirt road that led endlessly into the horizon and a few cacti littered the edges.

 _America?_

He then turned around to take a glance at the house. It wasn't a mansion, but it wasn't small either. It was a two-story cottage that had clearly been built many, many years prior. It was definitely of English design – unlike he previously suspected – and its warm yellowish glow gave off a homely and inviting atmosphere.

He sighed knowing that he had no choice but to ask Grace if he could stay for a few days while his ship repaired. There was absolutely nowhere else he could go because he was in the middle of goddamn nowhere! It was frustrating and incredibly inconvenient, especially when he no longer wanted anything to do with the beings that occupied the planet. They were hateful, prideful and terrified of anything that was even slightly different. Sure, he had travelled with and met many humans that were absolutely and truly wonderful, but, what about now? He couldn't take any chances, especially with how those people ended up in the end. Grace had not reacted badly in the slightest; in fact, she had reacted better that most humans would. She wasn't scared when she should have been and that alarmed him greatly. This was incredibly dangerous territory. There was no room for error – absolutely no mistakes.

He had to play this innocuous and be as benign as possible.

Oh, how he really wished he could be _anywhere_ else.

 _Maybe I could just sleep in a bush?_ Rolling his eyes petulantly, he thought in bitterness.

He rubbed his forehead and took a breath. There was no other way around this. Two days. That's it. Absolutely no more than that. So, with steely eyes and determination, The Doctor walked back in towards the house – the door still open in invitation as if it had always expected that outcome.

 _-p-_

In had been some time since The Doctor had returned into the house and asked to stay for a few days, to which Grace numbly nodded her head and squeaked out an "okay" that broke with hardly concealed excitement. She had so many questions she wanted to ask, so many things she wanted to know; things that worried her, that amazed her, that struck her greatly and things that would give her satisfaction in knowing that she had been _right_ – that everyone that had called her crazy were so incredibly wrong. But, just as the alien man sat next to her on the sofa, her mouth barely opened to speak before she noticed his demeanour.

It was distant, cold and so unexpectedly detached in ways in which many humans could relate to. He was struggling and hurting, that much was clear. People like that often were against speaking, often against company; she suspected he was too. Then again, he was not human and she was clearly projecting onto this man that probably processed emotions in a completely different way. For all she knew this is what his people looked like when they were completely ecstatic. However, by the state of his ship she doubted it.

She peered over at him through a sheet of pale gold that barely concealed her snooping. He was leaning forwards and hunched, his hands clasped tightly together as he looked emptily into the distance. It was very apparent how uncomfortable he was and how much he wished to be anywhere else.

 _Is it because of me?_

He wouldn't talk or even _look_ at her. Was she that offensive? That unwanted? She needed to ask him, hell, she had given this mopey space-bloke a place to stay and what for? An angsty teenager with communication issues apparently, that was repelled by anything even remotely adult. Twenty-one was barely and adult and she doubted she had ever truly acted like one. It was slightly off-putting really. What on Earth was wrong with even a slight bit of talking? Talking was great, wonderful, fantastic, it was just a shame that not even _one_ word would pass between them.

Her fingers flicked in irritation and impatience. She needed to do something otherwise this Doctor would have yet another thing to be silent to her for.

Getting up she made her way to the kitchen muttering away to her self as she poured two glasses of apple juice in annoyance. Grace knew she needed to calm herself down, but, honestly why should she? It was her home after all and here she was, pouring a drink for someone who didn't suggest or even try to ask for one.

 _Maybe he'll talk now?_ She snickered rhetorically.

Making her way back she sat down and put the drinks on the table. Taking a slow sip from hers, she peered at the man beside her as he silently did the exact same thing. Both of their eyes narrowed as they stared at each other, almost daring one another to make the first move, to speak first. For a few minutes they just sat there; drinking apple juice and staring before one of them broke and spoke the first syllables that had been exchanged between them for over an hour.

"Is there a problem?" The Doctor asked in slight irritation.

 _Well that was a shock._

No matter how surprising it was, Grace was never going to let him off easily, "The words I think you're struggling to find are 'thank' and 'you,' you are _very_ welcome to use them." Her smile was tight, thin and her teeth on the verge of clenching. Honestly, just _something_ would have been enough at this point. Talking to a brick wall was never fun and he, at this very moment, was looking very similar to the quintessential one. She could be wrong, but highly doubted it.

He turned to look at her, "Well I never asked for one, did I?" The exasperation was clear on his face as he failed to understand what he had done wrong.

It was insulting, unquestionably rude and… why on Earth did he sound Northern? Why did she only just notice that? No matter what she thought it didn't matter. They were different, both aliens to one another and honestly, she had no idea if manners were even a construct where he was from. For all Grace knew liquids could offend him and he was only drinking it to please her at his own expense. The possibilities surrounding this man were colossal and enormous. She had no idea how she could even begin to understand; all Grace knew was that she couldn't wait to try – if he would let her that was.

"Look, I can't even begin to understand your culture or ordeals or-or- _whatever!_ That doesn't matter. This is Earth, you need to understand that being rude to the person giving shelter and kindly watering you is just not a good look. Honestly, like if you're offended by apple juice, my bad, but at least give me a warning next time I try and be nice." His face was almost incomprehensible as he took in her words. Grace had no idea if was irked or impressed, angry or confused. All that could be seen were eyebrows drawn together in confusion as he opened his mouth slightly, whilst leaning outwards to face her more.

Grace was increasingly losing her patience with The Doctor and his apparent love for awkward stares and all-consuming bouts of silence. If he didn't say something soon, she was almost ninety-six percent positive that she would either storm off to leave him to his thoughts, or just randomly scream at absolutely _nothing_ before doing the exact same thing. Luckily, she didn't have to wait much longer to find out when his features slowly morphed; his mouth forming into a mischievous smile and his eyebrows raising up to the heavens as if they were preachers in a soul choir.

"Are you trying to tell me off?" His tone what teasing, yet dismissive at the same time as if he were completely above such things to the point where the mere thought of being reprimanded was amusing for him. But really, he was testing her. He had no idea how she would react to potential conflict with the unknown and no clue if she would back down scared, find a middle ground or just tell him to get out of her house immediately. That woman was different, that was for sure. She had taken everything in her stride and never once treated him like he didn't belong on Earth. To her, it seemed like he was nothing more than a stranger that could turn out to be absolutely anything… and he supposed that was actually exactly what he was. Grace had seemed to take the 'alien' bit out of the equation and just treated him like she would anyone else, well, minus a dirty straw and that comment about him being offended by apple juice.

 _That was very odd that._

"You are, aren't you?" He continued. He could see the annoyance build in Graces face as her left eye twitched and her fingers spasmed as if they desperately itched to become a fist.

She took a breath and gave him a deadpan stare, "Well obviously I am. You can't just go ' _Please let me stay the night because I crashed my spaceship in your garden and since it's a bit knackered, I'm a bit stuck right now. Please help me out?'_ No! My house, my rules; be nice to me and don't offend the fish, that's all I ask."

The Doctor let out a quiet, small whisper of a laugh. This girl was either incredibly smart or stupidly naïve. Not all species out there would give her as much respect and amicability as he currently was – some would kill her on the spot just for talking down to them. However, here she was sitting next to an alien and telling him exactly what was on her mind. She was definitely ballsy and exactly the kind of person who could hack it out there and would flourish among the constellations. She was exactly the kind of person he used to invite onto his ship and would show the wonders of the universe to; the kind of person he would have loved to get to know lifetimes ago before-before…

…No! He couldn't think of that. She would have her life the way it was meant to be and he would pay for every crime he had committed and never once forget what he lost and what he threw into the inferno he so hurriedly left behind. His life was never going to be a place for a human to live, thrive or even want. It was for the best, he knew it and deep down, he believed everyone who once set foot into the stars with him held the same viewpoint.

Grace would be no different.

"Hey are you okay? I didn't offend you or anything right? You've just gone really quiet out of nowhere." Eyes wide with worry, Grace slowly reached her hand out to comfort The Doctor before quickly thinking against it and retracting it with immediate haste. It was perplexing how quickly his emotion varied from one moment to the next. They were a hurricane of devastation that obscured reality and the minds perception of what happiness truly was before violently snapping into a flurry of all-consuming light and mischief. She was stumped, confused, thrown off – there was nothing to pin down the man who she had allowed to stay under her roof; and that was worrying, very worrying indeed.

Who had she truly let into her home?

"No, you never offended me. I was just thinking. My brain just works a hundred-thousand times faster than the average humans. Don't feel too down about it." he replied easily with a grin. It was clear he was oblivious to how degrading that statement was. It was rude, insensitive and… it was the truth.

 _So, is that who he is? A man of truth?_

Grace sat up a little straighter; "Well, I'm so _very_ sorry mister ' _Supreme Being'_ but, my inconveniently small brain is having trouble deciphering the entity that currently resides next to me!" She called in exasperation, but soon sighed and quickly dropped her sarcastic tone, however, when she realised how tired she was and how exhausted the whole experience had been. Having fight in you was one thing but keeping up the momentum? Now that was a skill she had yet to master; "Honestly though, you don't make _any sense!_ One minute you're all smiles and teasing and the next… it like you've seen a ghost, only, they're all in your head and there is definitely more than one just milling about up there. It's like a spooky brain party. Imagine that? Just a party where ghosts all gather in someone's brain before going on a night out, or even to have a movie night or seeing…" pausing momentarily she became lost in the idea, before harshly whipping round to a very confused and slightly amused Doctor, giving him a massive jolt as she did, "… okay serious question; do you think a ghost would get offended by Ghostbusters or horror movies? 'cause they give them bad rep y'know?" Ending on an awkward chuckle she decided that there was a very good time to stop.

Trying desperately to seem like a calm human being, Grace watched the man beside her intently – her hand rubbing the back of her neck as she tried to feel less anxious.

The Doctor stared at her for a few small moments before putting his incredibly helpful input in; "You're a bit of a strange one, aren't you?" he was smiling but Grace could not tell for the life of her whether he was teasing or degrading her. In any light it was no surprise when her back straightened and her eyes suddenly became the barricades to an impenetrable fortress.

Rectifying himself suddenly became paramount; "I'm not saying in a _bad_ way, but just different. Not many humans take this as well as you have – or made as many strange comments mind…" he trailed off.

 _Okay fair, I guess?_

"So, what _are_ you saying then?"

It was inherently clear that he knew exactly what he meant, Grace just wasn't sure if she wanted to find out. There were so many layers and complications that were involved in the matter and could arise later. Keeping up with all these scenarios was just too much to handle; especially for one night. All she wanted was some peace and quiet and her nice bed. No longer did she want explanations and answers that night and no longer did she care enough to ask for them.

 _There's always tomorrow._

Clearly, this look that swept over her face did not go unnoticed by The Doctor as he quickly changed his demeanour from something vaguely serious to a look that could be perceived as mildly caring.

"I think that's enough for tonight." He spoke it gently and Grace couldn't agree more. She nodded her head in agreement and stood up from her spot on the sofa – her legs and backside numb from sitting in the same place for too long.

"Well, I guess I'll show you to your room then."

-p-

It soon became apparent that The Doctor's ship would take a bit longer than two days to recover and had instead turned out to be just shy of two weeks; Christmas Eve to be exact.

In that time The Doctor had explained what much of his life had, on its most basic level, entailed. He told her that his ship was called the Tardis and continued to explain that she could travel anywhere in the entire universe and also in time. Grace was completely astounded when he told her the Tardis was alive and could translate any language, but what surprised her the most was that he seldom travelled the stars with his own kind. He unashamedly found the company of humans to be much more interesting and had often invited people to come along with him and travel in his living box that he claimed to be bigger on the inside.

Honestly it was all completely mental.

He had told her of some adventures he had experienced years ago and went into great depth about how the fires in Rome was "definitely" not his fault. The young woman was in complete awe every time he told her a little bit more about himself, his past, or just the universe in general. Wonder filled her eyes as she played each story in her mind, imagining herself in the midst of all the chaos.

Oh, how wonderful it would all be.

And the way things were going between them? Well, he had most definitely taken people on adventures for less.

Grace definitely could feel a friendship growing between them, but it was strained and tight. They would talk and joke with each other very often and The Doctor would tell her stories, stories she realised, that told her absolutely _nothing_ about this extraordinary man. He never spoke of his friends, family, pets, or even his home planet and species. There was nothing but mystery surrounding that man and despite getting closer to him on a vague level of friendship, she was still on square one when it came to knowing him truly on a personal level. All she knew was the 'safe' information that he would tell anyone to fool them into a sense that they understood and knew him personally.

But it didn't explain anything really.

It didn't explain the haunted look that would consume his face momentarily. It didn't explain his constant need to completely avoid talking about his people. It definitely didn't explain why he would stare at her with sadness every now and then or why when they first talked properly, he though he knew her from somewhere when Grace had never seen him before in her life. However, it did explain exactly what he still was; just shy of a stranger.

Grace realised it wouldn't be long before he would be off in the Tardis as she had already checked that morning and it showed absolutely no damage. Everything was now polished and band new.

It didn't take a genius to know what that meant.

Soon he would realise it too and would vanish off into the stars without ever looking back; never once giving a second thought to the strange woman who gave him a place to stay. Grace had never realised until that moment how much she wished that The Doctor would stay longer, that their friendship would grow and that maybe she could build enough trust with him that he would pop over every once in a while, to see her, if only to tell stories of his adventures and nothing more.

Hell, it was Christmas Eve, maybe she could convince him to stay for Christmas.

 _Surely that isn't too much of a stretch?_

Sighing she put the dish down that she had been cleaning. This definitely wasn't going to be a pleasant day.

"What's wrong with your face? It making this funny shape like…" he scrunched up his face and pointed to it, "…that! Like that." He grinned and looked over expecting her to do the same.

She truthfully hadn't even heard him approach her and even if she did, she doubted she could have been playful like he was. He would be leaving soon and she would probably never see him again, but for his sake, she put on a smile and kept up the ruse if only for his sake.

"Ohh, you're hardly one to judge when it comes to faces mate. How's the sniffer today?" It was a weak and cheap attempt which The Doctor instantly saw through. There was a bout of silence that descended upon them, which Grace was immensely grateful for. She continued to clean the dishes.

The Doctor was concerned. Not once had the woman in front of him been the one to cause the quiet that occasionally sprung upon them. Almost constantly was she the one rambling excitedly away and making jokes. She was constantly so excitable and bubbly that it made for great juxtaposition to see her as she was in that moment. It troubled him greatly in some aspects.

He could admit that over the last few weeks he had begun to enjoy graces company immensely, that he was slowly growing what seemed like companionship and that, on more than one occasion, he had almost told her something just a shade deeper than what had become the norm in his glorified storytelling. The Doctor also understood that he had gotten to close and… _familiar_ with Grace that it had become dangerous territory for the both of them; whether she knew so or not.

As much as he hated to admit it once he left, he would struggle not to come back and at least see Grace briefly.

But still, he cared and whilst he was around, he would still be her friend.

"What's wrong?" He asked whilst leaning against the countertop, trying to get a better view of her face.

"Nothing." Was the instant and all to quick reply. Grace knew she was fooling no one but instead piled up the choices she had inside her head. Choice number one: she tells The Doctor that his ship- _Tardis_ was ready and he merrily lollops out of the room never to be seen or heard from again, or number two: she doesn't tell him until later and the get to spend more time before he inevitably swans off.

 _This is such a mess._

 _Get a grip._

"The Tardis looks like it's fully repaired by the way. Looks like you have your ticket out of here" Grace tired to make it seem light and jokey, but The Doctors face still fell. She didn't understand what it was that made him look this was, but it didn't matter, he would be gone soon anyway.

Her reached over and picked up a clean plate, "Ah there's no rush. I've got nowhere I need to be."

Grace looked at him oddly and stopped what she was doing, "Hold on. What happened to wanting nothing more than to leave?" She took the plate from him.

"'Wanting nothing more' that's a bit extreme isn't it?"

"Well I mean it's true…"

"…How so?"

"You haven't exactly been inconspicuous about your motives."

"Look if want me to go, I'll leave. The door is just over there. You'll never see me again…"

"… _No!"_ Grace raised her voice, slight desperation leaving its ugly stench to slip into her tone. In an attempt to recover she added quickly; "I mean at least wait until Christmas is over. Would be a bit rude to leave right before Christmas y'know."

Tugging on her hair slightly Grace had expected the man to scoff and wander away, but instead what she found was the polar opposite. His smile was warm and almost reached his eyes. She couldn't tell if it was a look of genuine contentment or if he was just pitying her for being so upset over someone she barely knew leaving. Soon, however, his face broke out into an exited grin. He ran out of the kitchen and rather violently plonked himself down on the sofa in front of the T.V.

"Come on then! I hope you don't mind me talking through things because I know every single word to Elf!" He called out dramatically. Grace couldn't help but chuckle at his behaviour and couldn't stop the large grin from spreading across her features. He was staying, if only for a few hours more.

She quickly ran towards the sofa and sat down with just as much vigour as The Doctor previously had - her own face matching his Cheshire-Cat grin. She leant over and switched on the T.V.

"How do you know all the words the Elf anyways? It's only been out for a bit over a year. You must have watched it so many times. I mean it's a good movie and all, but I can't see people getting obsessed over it and watching it constantly. Its probably not gonna last 'cause like every year there's a new Christmas movie and most of them never get talked about again. I just can't see Elf becoming a cultural phenomenon like, say, Diehard."

The Doctor chuckled and gave her a look that was completely unreadable apart from the slight amusement that poked through briefly.

"Merry Christmas Grace."

"Merry Christmas Doctor."

They both smiled before getting back to the movie. Grace would never tell him in that moment, but under the tree was a parcel with silver palm trees on it addressed to the man beside her. She just hoped that his staying that night meant he was staying for the next day too.

After a few movies and nonstop jokes about putting Grace at the top of the tree for her name being "angelic", both Grace and The Doctor decided to call it a night before one of them accidentally fell asleep on the sofa.

They both went to sleep with a smile spread across their lips.

 _-p-_

The next morning Grace woke up to a sound she had never heard in her entire life. It was wheezing and croaking and whooshing as if it were a chain-smoker scratching the stings of a piano up and down, whilst coughing violently and jerking their hands as they did so. Rushing out of her bed, Grace charged down the staircase, not even stopping to put on shoes as she ran out of the house in her pyjamas.

That sound could have only come from one thing. It wasn't possible for anything around her home to make any sound such as that.

He was leaving. That was for certain.

As Grace reached the site where the Tardis crashed, she realised with sadness that there was nothing she could do to change it. With one last noise the Tardis vanished from sight, leaving no trace behind that she or even The Doctor were ever even there.

 _He never even said goodbye._

And so, Grace stood that Christmas morning alone and in the freezing cold of December. A present left under the tree would be left untouched as her day would pan out like it had any other.

She would see no one this Christmas since she no longer had anyone around to spend it with.

Grace pulled out her phone and called the only number she had off by memory.

"Hey Danny! Merry Christmas!"

* * *

 **Hey! thank you to everyone who read and reads this story, it truly means a lot. I'm not sure how coherent this was towards the end but I really hope you guys enjoyed it. The next chapter will be the first adventure for Grace and The Doctor and the pacing of the story will definitely pick up after that.**

A **nyways please comment what you think and if there's anything you're unsure about or want to know. P.S comments really help and encourage me.**

T **his is only the beginning.**

 **Merry Christmas!**

 **-Live long and prosper.**


	4. Chapter 3 - The First Adventure

_Into the adventure..._

* * *

Chapter 3

 **Saturday 1** **st** **January, 2005**

The thing about running was that it was widely accepted as a recreational activity by the majority of the population. It was a way to keep fit, healthy and a beyond obvious way for people to work off all they had eaten over the winter period under the pretence of 'New Years Resolutions' when, in reality, it was an idea dropped just after the first day of trying. That's what Grace assumed was going on outside at that very moment. Hundreds and thousands of people running about, trying to keep up the notion that one jog will be pivotal in changing their lives. Inevitably, it never would be that simple and a single run made on a whim would do nothing in the grand scheme of things.

But, Grace was running for an entirely different reason.

It was on that day that she decided to look more into the unknown and non-terrestrial occurrences. That's how she found herself phoning up an old woman after finding a rather peculiar article in the local newspaper. That's how she made up her mind to check out whatever anomaly was potentially taking place and that's how she currently found herself sprinting as fast as she could underneath the earth, winding around an array of freshly made tunnels whilst running from a huge spider-like creature with hands at the end of its legs and squid tentacles for a face.

She hadn't meant to annoy it; truly she hadn't. It was just a rather unfortunate turn of events that started with her making a pun about hands and then ending up with a sentence for execution. It was no wonder really that it was offended, it was even less a wonder when it became upset to the point where it wanted to eliminate to source of its current low self-esteem.

It was an incredibly touchy creature, truly it was.

 _Overly-sensitive._

The only issue now was getting away from this special snowflake of an alien that was hell-bent on killing her. Grace was never the athletic or even slightly sporty type, in fact, the most exercise she ever did was purely mental – which she thought was exhausting enough on its own – so when her breathing turned from deep, controlled gulps into shallow hiccups that burnt and twisted every time her lungs contracted with whatever air they could consume, it became incredibly apparent that her time to escape was pouring past her like a harsh winters breeze powering on its determined path through its frozen country.

Her vision began to blur as the oxygen began to stop reaching vital organs. Her chest ached immensely and her hand clutched it tightly as her body finally gave in. Grace swayed slightly before colliding with the wall beside her. It was freezing, muddy, wet, slimy and the ridges in its curved surface dug into her arm, leaving bruises to form that littered her shoulder, but that didn't stop her from moving. Her body may have been shutting down from exhaustion but that in no way stopped her brain from racing at a million miles an hour. Death or survival? That was the only question she needed to keep dredging her aching body across the wall that painfully supported her.

An awful screech sounded in the distance before a closer noise became clearer. A sickening crunch and the clicking sounds of arachnid legs coming into contact with the walls and each other. A foreboding feeling settled deep within her gut – it was only a matter of time and her situation was truly and utterly dire. She had but one chance to get away from that _thing_ and she couldn't let her deteriorated body be her downfall, so, with haste, she pushed herself off the wall. Stumbling slightly, she found her balance and began to run once more; only it was more of a limp-hobble-skip that was barely fast enough to keep up with the average New Years jogger. It wasn't enough, that was glaringly obvious and with the black and brown blotched shapes that had attacked and smothered her vision? Falling seemed like the only possible outcome and only reasonable one realistically.

Hands to the ground and knees imbedded in the dirt, it was no wonder Grace had accepted this as the end. There was nothing to do, nothing to say. Her body had shut down and she was only barely hanging onto consciousness. All she could process were the grim sounds that were only moments away from her inevitable "pop off" that would happen within seconds.

 _At least it's an interesting way to go._

She managed to let out a small, sparing laugh at the absurdity of it all. She was going to be brutally murdered by a giant squid-faced-hand-spider all because she was bored and wanted something interesting to do. To say she succeeded in her quest was an understatement.

Grace closed her eyes and waited for her fate to take her, only – just as she was sure her end had descended upon her – large hands encased and gripped her shoulders tightly. The hands roughly hoisted her body up off the ground and onto her feet. Her arm was placed lazily over a shoulder as another arm slid around her waist and held it in a tight grip. It took slightly longer than it should have for Grace to realise she was being supported.

"You may not like this, but I need you to run, Grace. I need you to run as fast as you possibly can and not stop. Can you do that for me?"

Grace nodded her head numbly, not processing or particularly caring who had hauled her up. She followed their lead as she was tugged roughly through the tunnels, barely taking in anything around her as she fought to remain conscious – the only thing truly remaining was her desperate and primal need to survive.

After running for a short – or was it long? – while the extraordinarily weakened woman was pulled into an off-shooting tunnel and, as they slowed to a halt, Grace began to violently gasp for air as her lungs begged desperately for replenishment. Whoever had saved her slowly detangled themselves from her and lowered the exhausted woman to the ground as gently as possible.

Soon her saviour crouched down in front of her. Grace couldn't focus on anything; no shapes, sights, sounds or anything that could trigger a sudden realisation of familiarity. She had run too long and too far trying to escape. There was nothing left in her to keep going. Then, if only to take her mind off her aching chest, there was an absolutely excruciating pain that erupted on her lower leg. An injury the woman had completely forgotten about when she had been consumed with the all-encompassing adrenaline that had kept her alive for the hours she clearly had been running for. She had received the injury in her initial escape from the creature. It had crushed her to the ground in a flurry of madness and anger; its fury making it pierce her leg with its volatile and deadly sharp legs. Escape came to her in the form of tearing her leg away from the creature, making her wound form a massive gash which she fully ignored in favour of escaping her assailant.

Now, it seemed she was paying the price for it.

She needed to let whoever was with her know that her exhaustion was not all her weakness could be attributed to. With shaking fingers attached to a limb full of tremors, she attempted to gesture towards her leg. Was it enough? She couldn't tell, all of her thoughts converged on that one point on that single task that urgently needed completed.

Survival or death?

There was only ever one answer to that.

With quivering lips and gasping breaths, mangled words attempted to form. Only a few letters managed to emerge before she could no longer speak, her mind finally started to waver as a flow of tiredness washed over her. She fought it with everything.

Soon, she felt a presence closer to her and the barely comprehensible "Oh God" that came from in front of her. A hand came into contact with her cheek as it forced her head forwards.

"I can fix this okay? Just don't close your eyes. A few more minutes, hold on for a few more. Do you understand?" The voice was distanced and disembodied, but she did understand it, fully and wholly.

There was shuffling close to her. If this "fix" didn't come soon, well, the choice would no longer be hers to make – her body seemed desperate to change the answer to the question, but the oceans would run dry and the Earth would roast before she ever let that happen. Death was not an option, never was, never would be and today was not the one that she would allow the darkness to take her. There was too much left for her to experience and discover, too may unresolved relationships and problems. No, today was not the day and so, with steel in her eyes, she flooded the blackness with light long enough for whoever was with her to heal her.

A coolness soon unfurled across her lower leg, spreading deep into her skin until she felt a peculiar tingling overcoming all the agony that previously ravaged the area. A sigh escaped her lips in immense relief. Whatever had been used felt like pure serenity; even as she felt every cell in her wound slowly merge themselves back together. It was a feeling unlike any other – like a shot of pure energy being injected into her blood stream.

Her arm, slightly stronger now, slid downwards as her curiosity filled fingers felt over the gash. They, however, soon jerked back with more power that she should have been capable of. The wound was almost completely gone and in its place was a small ridge that seemed to be weeks into being healed – it should have been impossible.

"Don't worry about it. Should be about five minutes before you have enough strength to move on again."

Taking it in slowly she moved her eyes toward her wound. The hazy static that clouded her vision slowly evaporated as her sight transformed into unparalleled clarity. A small line. That's all there was. Red and ridged, but nothing more.

 _What the hell!_

Then, almost as soon as it hit her, something crucial came to mind – something that had previously been neglected until that very moment. She was not alone and whoever saved her was just an arm's length away. With care, dark-green eyes lifted towards the figure opposite her. It was a man, but, not just any man; one with a large pair of ears and nose, one with incredibly close-cropped hair, one

with an affinity for leather jackets and one who had royally pissed her off on Christmas morning. Of _course_ , it _had_ to be him. His royal bloody highness, the _Doctor_. Grace was truly ecstatic.

Rolling her eyes, she sat up a bit straighter, "Oh… it's you." She said with mocking distaste. Truly, she was annoyed at him, but that could wait for later when they were in a safer circumstance. Right then, he had saved her and as much as she wanted to go off on one, she knew she couldn't. it wasn't fair nor right to treat him that way after he had risked himself for her. It was fruitless anyway to attempt it; she doubted he even understood what he had done wrong. So, with a small smile etching its way across her face, she continued to speak; "How's it going Doc?"

His eyebrow quirked upwards as a mildly annoyed expression spread across his features. It was fake, she could tell and even if it was convincing, well, there was no way to disguise the relief and concern that dominated his gaze. Guilt began to swarm within her as she realised how much of an idiot she had been and how much she had unwittingly thrown onto the man she had, merely a few weeks ago, dared to call friend.

 _What have I done?_

If she hadn't been there then none of that mess would have ever taken place. There was no excuse, no reason and no extenuating circumstance… only her own severe lapse in judgement to blame.

But, regret, anguish and guilt were never going to be the emotions needed to get up from their precariously concealed position and get the two of them out of there safe, free and unscathed – certainly it would never stop that creature from harming others; a creature that was so clearly out of depth, place and context on planet Earth. In a way, Grace felt incredibly sorry for it and its terrible predicament but, the overwhelming consensus in her mind was wanting to march right up to it and kick it for being such a colossal _dick head._

Realistically however, that was just a bad idea no matter which way she put it and no matter how righteous and justified she felt, it was just going to end up with her just a bit, slightly dead.

And that was just a bad life choice in general.

No, she had to work as a team with The Doctor and make a solid plan without being a brain-dead, lump of a liability – it was just slightly disheartening that her body was still not even close to being ready for harsh movements. Still, it was at least strong enough for her to sit up just that little bit straighter.

"I hardly think that's the question you should have asked me. You almost got yourself killed!" The Doctor loudly proclaimed jolting Grace slightly from her thoughts. She had been so engrossed with her own musings that the question she had originally asked him had faded from her memory into oblivion; only now being resurrected from its inky depths.

She rolled her eyes, "Slightly bad move on my part. Most likely won't happen again…" Grace said waving her hand in inconvenience, hoping her eyes didn't betray her, "…probably." She muttered low enough to be the sole witness to the words.

The Doctor paused, looking as if he were about to speak once more, before releasing a sigh with an unparalleled air of defeat. Standing up briefly, he walked the miniscule distance over to her side of the tunnel and sat himself down next to her. Looking solidly at Graces face he noticed the ache of regret that barely hid concealed beneath the surface of her tired features. Seeing her this hurt, defeated, exhausted – _damaged_ was something that he had never wished nor wanted to see. After all it was one of, if not the main reason he left without her in the first place; something he only now realised may not have had the effect he intended to leave behind.

"What are you doing here, Grace?" He asked sincerity seeping into each and every syllable that exited his lips.

Grace simply shrugged, "Was just a bit bored really. Saw this article in the paper and thought I'd give it a look and now here we are." She looked to him, "What are you doing here?

"'A bit bored' seriously? That's one of the stupidest reasons I've ever heard and trust me, I've heard _plenty."_ The doctor looked over his shoulder sending an incredulous look to the young woman who, to her credit, looked a teensy bit, slightly guilty. Pulling on her earlobe she winced slightly.

"Well… I mean. I finished Uni last year, I'm just ever-so-slightly unemployed and about three weeks ago everything that so many people called me crazy for, was proved one hundred percent real. You, Well, not you specifically – I haven't been weirdly stalking you for years or anything weird like that – but other people from different planets, species from other worlds – beings who are aliens from the Human perspective and you just expected me to sit down and keep feeding into the boring routine I'm supposed to follow? No! you opened my eyes, Doctor, and nothing can stop me from seeing everything now." She paused gathering her thoughts before looking steadily into the Doctors chilling-blue eyes, "I need to see Doctor, just a glimpse of something incredible and just _more_. I've lived complacent and comfortable for too long. Well no more. It's time I did something worthwhile."

 _No more._

Oh, how the doctor knew those words all too well. Two simple yet catastrophic syllables that led to death, destruction, downfall and his own personal deterioration. A necessary evil that ultimately led him to the man he had become, one that should not have even survived to partake in the conversation he was currently having.

 _No more._

But, much to his own personal obliviousness, The Doctor had failed to take this glaring red light for what it was – an alarm that would only blare louder as time passed and pieces of Grace slowly became lost and foreign. He seemed, in that moment to be slightly too enthusiastic towards her after her speech. After all, who was he to deny the woman an adventure? Even after that day's catastrophe.

"The dangers out there are beyond anything you could ever imagine. Whatever species you managed to rub up the wrong way here is nothing but child's play compared to what I've seen and compared to almost any other planet anywhere in space or time. Could you handle it?" The question was left hanging for no more than a few milliseconds before Grace was ready to answer as confidently as she could, only, it would have to wait for who-knows-how-long before she could allow the words to manifest into sentiments she would never be able to take back. The _click-clack-click_ of the creature had become increasingly close the tunnel in which they hid. Only seconds remained before it was at eye level with them.

Both alien and human staying as silent as the grave. Their hands finding one another's in comfort whilst neither dared release any breath.

Then there it was.

It's putrid smell leaving wisps of foulness to enter their nostrils. It took almost everything in Grace not to balk at the very thought of it and made her wonder why she had never noticed that pronounced odour before.

It's head turned towards them.

Her eyes looked directly at it.

Her hand tightened around the Doctors own.

He did the same.

Then as if by some ill-conceived draw of luck, It moved onwards down the tunnel leading off into a separate chasm.

Shaking her head, Grace knew that they needed to get the _hell_ out of dodge before that creature realised it had just lost its prey. She turned her head towards the man beside her.

"That thing does have a bit of a whiff about it, doesn't it?." She stated, her nose wrinkled in disgust.

The Doctor gave her an incredulous look before he was suddenly jerked upwards. Grace had, somewhat painfully, managed to haul herself and the Doctor up off the ground. He gave her a look of concern and confusion, but before he could question her any further he found himself suddenly tugged further down the tunnel – his body catching up to his arm after a few seconds of stunned faffing about. Soon he matched graces stride as they twisted down into a new intersection. They went left and ran for a few minutes more before their pace steadily slowed to a halt.

Grace lifted their conjoined hands with a half-hearted "whoo!" Before letting go and leaning up against the wall behind her. Sitting just didn't seem like a safe or even particularly viable decision at that point. The extra step of standing up was not exactly the best tactic when needing to escape from a psychotic squid-hand-spider that was hellbent on her elimination from life.

The Doctor hesitated for a moment, before coming slightly closer to her. "Are you all right? You're not hurt or…?"

Grace shook her head. "No, no just a bit knackered is all." She finished on a weak chuckle. She sighed when the familiar buzzing of a certain screwdriver – that definitely wasn't the product of a man that just didn't know when to stop when it came to multi-purpose devices – raked up and down her body. The Doctor let out a small grunt when the results came back with a perfect report card, whilst Grace simply shook her head at him, the side of her mouth quirking up in amusement.

He moved to the other side of the tunnel, eyes drifting towards the direction they came from; Graces soon travelled to the same destination. It was in this action the she realised they hadn't even gone that further into the tunnel and that _unbelievably_ , they were incredibly exposed.

 _Go figure_.

Trying not to think about their position, her eyes slowly drifted back to the man across from her only to find that his were already locked gravely on her. It wasn't a kind or welcoming gaze, it was harsh, cold and calculating. The concern he had previously for her had vanished into the ether, leaving nothing but a passive casing, shielding a brew of stirring and highly provoked anger, annoyance and severe irritation beneath. In a way, it was almost as if being scolded silently by a parent who just wanted a picture-perfect child. It was greatly unnerving, causing Grace to shift awkwardly on the spot; her feet scraping over one another and her hand tugging the segment of hair closest to her face.

She laughed nervously. "So…uh…what was that thing? Cause I don't know about you but I've never seen anything like it. I mean it's a bit weird isn't it having a creature combo'd with those three things. Honestly, spider body with human hands for feet? What is the _point_? It cant have any evolutionary purpose that would be in any way beneficial! And don't get me started on the logistics of having a bloody squid for a face…"

As she spoke, the Doctors overly-harsh stare began to soften. He couldn't stay mad, no matter how hard he tried – he wasn't even sure if he wanted to. Each word that exited her mouth was just nonsensical babble that didn't really amount to anything and looped round and round and round and didn't have any intention of stopping. It was very easy to zone out to. The incessant need to talk for a very long time – ordinarily – would have driven him up the wall within seconds (he was only a man of very few words himself after all) but with her he almost found it endearing – _almost_.

After a while it could get quite, _very_ , annoying.

"… So I mean can you see where I'm coming from? Of course you do but..."

"…Squib." The Doctor interjected, desperate for her to just. Stop. _Talking_.

"What?"

"Squib."

"You what?"

"It's a squib."

"Confused."

"The alien… is a Squib." He said slowly, desperate for her to finally use the intelligence he knew she stored somewhere deep within her mind. He may have also been a smidge exasperated too.

Graces face scrunched violently before it relaxed, and finally, scrunched hurriedly back up in equal

disgust.

"Squib?!"

"Yup…"

"That is such a stupid name. You sure you're serious? Like serious, serious?"

"Deadly." The Doctor stated a tad irritated. He didn't want to get overly frustrated with her, after all she was a human up against her first alien looking alien, but that didn't mean he couldn't be just slightly ticked off at her constant questioning over the exact same topic. He could handle it if the questions were at least different and varied, not stuck on a perpetual loop, condemning him for all eternity.

They stayed silent for a few moments before Grace became slightly agitated. So many questions flooded and flowed into her already overwhelmed mind. Where was it from? Why did it take such offence and why on earth was it tunnelling away under the soil of an old woman's garden? And that was just the tip of questions she had planned to fiercely onslaught onto the Doctor. However, such thoughts were quickly qualmed when the man in question shook his head with a slight chuckle. Her gaze snapped up towards him at that.

"I can practically hear the thoughts ticking around your head; like the words you want to say have already been spoken just through that intense look you have." He said slightly mocking of her. Grace glared as her arms folded in front of her. The Doctor coughed. "Okay fine, it's from the planet Cadmius's second moon Arcindate, its here because, well, it's an incredibly dull place to live really – never could understand why anything would want to live on Arcindate – and I have no idea why it's so offended. They're usually such peaceful creatures…" He trailed off giving a half-accusatory-half-curious look. What had she done?

She rubbed the back of her neck and laughed weakly. "Well…you see I…" She started, but was interrupted by an incredibly large screech that sounded off far too close to them for comfort, causing the woman to gulp deeply and look towards the Doctor with fearful determination. She took a stride forward before grabbing the Doctors hand, his eyes looking at her confused before he too heard the gruesome sound of their deaths looming ever closer, "…we need to go now Doctor." And with that she began running in the opposite direction of the creature – _Squib_ – that followed them. The Doctor ran with her at the same pace, desperate to escape with their lives.

The tunnels blurred as each of them adopted its form of vision. The focus was solely to survive. They had to. Just _had_ to. But, as time went on, it was becoming clear that Grace could no longer keep the pace she once had. The Doctor was now ahead of her and almost dragging her to make sure she kept up. Grace was exhausted, weak, tired and desperate to just lie down and sleep. Her legs began to hurt with every step taken. A slick flame that twisted and burrowed its way deep beneath the flesh, settling deep within her joints and marrow. It was like her entire body was slowly beginning to combust – each of her bones slowly turning to dust. Her breaths came out as short hiccups, head feeling as if constantly dwelling within intense motion blur and her heart feeling like it could erupt out of her chest at any given moment.

She let go of the Doctors hand.

Grace looked around where she was, taking in her options and possibilities. Off to her right was a crevice that could easily fit two people and to her left was nothing but solid earth. So that was her choices; crevice or keep running until a new tunnel came within view. And there was no way she could keep running much longer.

 _Crevice it is._

"Grace come on! We need to _go_."

Feeling her hand being taken once more all she could do was shake her head and whisper a quiet ' _no'_ that was barely comprehensible.

The Doctor, however, did not so much as loosen his grip. "You can't be serious? Grace you understand that if we stop, we die right?"

"Of course I know…" she began slightly sharp, "…but I can't keep going Doctor. If I keep doing this I'm going to collapse like last time and then we will be completely nothing but Squib dinner." She nodded towards the gap in the wall, "There's a crevice just there that could fit the both of us and then some. Just give me five minutes. Five minutes and we can keep going again."

Giving her an unsure look, the Doctor looked into her eyes for any signs of self-doubt or any inkling that she could change her mind. He found nothing but confidence and exhaustion.

Grace stared at him intensely, trying desperately to give the impression of confidence when in reality that mask was just as flimsy as her reasoning for stopping. If he agreed then whatever happened would be on her.

He sighed. "Two minutes. We cant afford to lose any more time. We cant even afford to lose this..." he trailed off before leading them both into the small gap in the tunnel – Grace headed towards the back whilst the doctor kept watch near the entrance.

The inside was noticeably darker than the rest of the interconnecting trails of tunnel and was significantly more damp. Water trailed from the ceiling and slid down the walls in thin strands which heavily resembled the pulsing veins that often protruded where the skin was thinnest on the wrist. A small light emerged onto it, glimmering as more water trickled down the now glistening wall. An obscured image of mangled features was what it had become – a mirror that reflected nothing but horror and fear. Fingers reached out to touch its cold fluidity. They grazed across it gaining a small sheen that coated finger tips. Grace looked at the substance curiously, her eyes being reflected in distortion on the top of her own skin. She was transfixed, unable to do anything more than simply stare at that liquid which seemed to be more viscous that normal, holding a transparency and lustre that, to all appearances, obscured reality entirely.

After some time her concentration shifted back towards the wall which seemed thicker with the substance than it was before. She could clearly see her entire body now. It was misshapen and different; an arm in the wrong place, her neck bent sharply to the side and and eye slowly sliding down her dripping face. It was almost a if her own reflection had taken up a career of being a cubist artist. Grace moved her face closer to the substance and her own peculiar mirror image. One hand reached for her real face in confirmation that she herself was not misshapen, and the other landed centrally in the middle of her abstracted reflection.

Then, everything changed.

The light tones of her skin swirled and merged with the blonde of her hair and brown of her jacket forming into something else entirely. Soon even the colours changed turning more grey and dull. Each shape formed together as if they were small drops of rain that had been magnetised together. It was hard to make out exactly what was happening and harder still to keep a hold of the fleeting thoughts that seemed to be stolen as soon as they had been born. Then, the shapes began to form together manifested into an image that was clouded and obscured with smoke – that was until the silhouette solidified into permanency.

The image was of a woman, familiar in every way possible, yet strikingly different; for the woman standing there was in fact Grace… Just not as she knew herself to be. She was wearing a grey satin dress and jewelled earrings that shone, her long golden hair now cropped just above her shoulders and her dark-green eyes impossibly deeper in colour and devoid of any emotion. Her hand was steady as she held a black metal object between her reddened fingers.

Then she lifted it.

It was soon very apparent as to what she had been holding.

The version of Grace in the reflection strode quickly and purposefully towards her. No words were spoken as she looked into the endless depths of her normally vibrant eyes. The pain and emptiness was almost too much to bear. Graces reflection never flinched when she made her living counterpart stare down the bottom of the barrel, her eyes seemingly staring right through her as her fingers squeezed tightly on the trigger – not so much as a choice of final word or plea for mercy as the bullet found its mark.

Taking an involuntary step backwards, Grace sucked in in incredibly deep breath as pain erupted on her forehead. Her hand reached violently upwards, padding the skin desperately trying to find the wound. Only there wasn't one. The skin on her forehead was perfectly smooth and her fingers devoid of the sticky red substance that should have smothered them. She look up to the liquid mirror, eyes wide and desperate, only to find it had gone, leaving no trace of ever being there in the first place. The wall was completely dry. She reached her hand towards the wall cautiously, her fingertips twitching inches away before a voice stopped her in her tracks.

"Grace?" The Doctor asked in concern, his brows furrowing as worry shone in his eyes. "What's wrong?"

Grace still wasn't present, at least not mentally, so when she turned around to face him with the empty eyes her invisible counterpart seemed to possess, it struck the Doctor as alarming immediately. He took a step forward, her eyes were still completely unfocused as he did so.

"Grace?" He tried once more albeit with considerable amounts of caution.

He put his hand on her shoulder.

Graces eyes focused with the piercing clarity of a finely cut diamond as she leaned closer.

"Something horrifying is to descend upon us."

She spoke the words so softly it was as if she was communicating with the wind itself. But, the Doctor heard it, every bit. He leaned down to meet her at eye level, trying to decipher any information he wished he could pull from their depths of ether.

"What?" He spoke almost as softly. He was confused, concerned, but overall more than a tad more curious than what would have normally been expected from a situation such as that.

Her eyes glazed over once more and the Doctor became frustrated. He grabbed her other shoulder shook her. It was only mean to be slight, but ended up more violent in fear than he intended.

"What's going to happen? Grace, tell _me!_ "

"I'm telling you to _stop!_ " Grace yelled as she yanked herself free from the Doctors harsh grip. Grace rubbed her shoulders, wincing slightly as slight spots of pain rose to the surface of her skin. She gave him a glance that held caution, confusion and a bubbling pool of anger. "What in the _hell_ was that for, huh?" She winced once more.

"You know I have an older brother. I'm used to being ruffed around a bit. But usually I did something to deserve it and then there is the glaring fact that he is, well, my brother. Do you see where I'm coming from?" She said with slight exasperation.

The Doctor seemed to become nothing more than the living personification of confusion at that point. He moved his head from left to right before leaning forwards. A perplexed smile emerged as he put his hands together in one resounding _thud_. "Absolutely no idea, but what I do want to know is why on Earth do you think something bad is going to happen? What do you know? Also sorry for hurting you a bit." He shrugged giving a brighter grin that before.

"Yeah its not exactly fun being a human salt shaker." Grace grumbled to herself petulantly before really taking in what the Doctor said. It was absurd, unrealistic, stupid and not to mention impossible. They had only been inside that small alcove for a few seconds which was nowhere near enough time to suddenly gain knowledge – Knowledge of what exactly? It seemed like he was suggesting the future – which was completely mad – but honestly, he was an odd bloke anyway, probably got a bit bored, slightly flustered and had a minor hallucination. Yeah that seemed like it.

By why did that not seem like it was the right answer?

Her arm dropped fro her shoulder to her side. "What do you mean? Something bad's going to happen? How am I supposed to know that?"

"That's what you said. 'Something horrifying is to descend upon us' that's what you told me a minute ago. Now are you gonna tell me what it is, or keep it to yourself?"

Grace shook her head and let out a disbelieving chuckle, her arms folding over one another as her chin rested on her fist, a stray finger pointing out to the side. "I don't remember that." She dropped her arm and shrugged. "Honestly, I don't, so whatever information you're looking for? I don't know what to tell you, but its not there and I kinda doubt it ever was…"

"…it was, it definitely was…"

"…But, what we need to do now is keep moving. I want us to get out of here alive and to be able to get some really strong paracetamol 'cause my head is _killing_ me." Grace said as she moved towards the tunnel once more, only to be stopped in her tracks.

"You were really upset about your head a minute ago. Seemed like you were in a lot of pain and by the look on your face I'm guessing you don't remember that, do you?" The Doctor asked rhetorically, knowing full well his words to be true.

Grace shook her head in denial. "It's been two minutes, we need to go. Don't mind me. I'll figure it out later. Now, what we really need to focus on is getting out of here and – not to give you any false hope or anything – I got down here through a tunnel that seemed as endless as the first level of the maze in Labyrinth, so maybe were closer than we think, yeah?"

The Doctor had to admit that even he couldn't argue with that. But, he would check into that when they got out. He couldn't leave it – he just _had_ to know.

Grabbing her hand, he made his way towards the tunnel. "Okay fine. But once we get out I'm gonna run a few tests to see what's going on okay? Okay good. Nice chat. Moving on."

He began to pull her towards the brighter tunnel, the light blinding him momentarily before he finally realised what a great-big-massive-mistake he had made by not checking the space in which he was to step out on. If he had checked maybe they would have been able to get out with less fear that they ended up with, maybe then he could have gotten safely away with no scrambling about and maybe then would he not be face-to-face with the creature that had hunted them since they had arrived.

The Squibs tentacles oozed a gunge that resembled the salivated drool from a hungry dog, turned brown with the mud it had chosen to dwell within. It had no eyes, mouth, nose or ears on its sickly pale face, only indentations to give the idea that, at one point in their evolution, they may have possessed those features. The smell was putrid, vile and burned the nostrils of both the man that stood before it and the woman slightly behind. It was toxic. The creatures jet black legs rubbed together making a hissing sound before one of its bladed appendages slammed into the wall next to the Doctors head, its foot of hands green with mould, black with gangrene and yellow with infection that would never cause it any harm. It was leaning closer, closer, closer, _closer_ …

…until it wasn't.

Grace had hauled him back inside the crevice, hurriedly motioning at him to keep as still and quiet as possible, to which he obliged immediately. Both their hands holding each other for all the comfort that they could accumulate. And with a quick, worried glance between one another before turning back to the creature, they stayed motionless and waited.

Grace held her breath tightly.

The rusting sound persisted and was followed by an incredibly loud screech that held so much anguish and fury that it caused both the Doctor and Grace to shrink slightly in fear.

It seemed like years before its perilous wailing began to fade into the distance, its massive body scraping loudly against the sides as it went. The Doctor poked his head out first to see if the danger had passed for now and was short followed by Grace who popped her head out just below his own. He two of them gazed into the direction it went before letting out two sighs.

Grace chuckled slightly. "Bloody hell." She said in disbelief.

The doctor looked down at her and gave a look that was nothing short of agreement. It was indeed 'bloody hell', well, almost, but that was besides the point.

It wasn't long after that when they began to sprint once more, not taking anymore chances.

—***—

In the end Grace had been right, that had been the tunnel that she had originally come down and it hadn't taken long before they reached the ladder that they needed to ascend before they could finally see daylight once more. The ladder was black and rose into the manhole that capped their escape. The area was also darker, not as dark as the alcove but it it was the kind of blackness that was still and promoted nothing but silence in the eerie stagnant surroundings. The main source of

light came from the golden rim that outlined the manhole, giving it the appearance of the sun peering from behind the moon during a solar eclipse.

Grace leaned in towards towards the Doctor, a massive grin breaking out on her lips. "Told ya I knew where I was going." She said cheekily nudging him with her shoulder slightly.

The Doctor played along also leaning closer slightly, his own smile playing out. "That was complete dumb luck and you know it."

"Call it what you will, point remains… I still found it." She teased before stepping out closer towards the ladder.

The Doctors eyebrow raised. "Don't you mean _we_? 'Cause I don't know if you've noticed yet, but there are two of us."

Grace simply waved her hand giving a short sound of dismissal. She walked over to the ladder and put her hand on the rung closest to her height level. It was instantly freezing to touch, making her jerk her hand away from it instantly. Grace glared at the rung, almost daring it to displease her once more.

"You good over there? Not having another episode again are you?" The Doctor called from slightly further away, to which Grace promptly flipped her middle finger and gracefully flung it over her shoulder, causing the Doctor the chuckle slightly at her antics.

"You coming or what?" She called over her shoulder. He caught up to her rather quickly. Stepping before her, he put his hand on the rung and started climbing, Grace following suit. It soon became known that they both had underestimated the height off which they had to climb.

"This might take a while." The Doctor said, looking hopelessly upwards.

" _Really_ _now_? I hadn't noticed." Grace replied dully.

"No need to get snarky."

"Well, what else am I supposed to do?"

"Talk maybe?"

"About what?" Grace relied back slightly incredulously. She was really, pretty, _incredibly_ tired already – talking would just add to it in the worst possible way.

"Well.." The Doctor began, "…how about you tell me how you managed to make one of the most peaceful creatures in the entire Traflinax galaxy become a bit partial to murder?"

Grace scoffed. "I made a few puns about hands and slagged the state of them off. It didn't say any out loud 'cause, you know, I didn't want to hurt its feelings. How was I supposed to know that morse code was the only way it could speak? Why would an alien from a galaxy far far away know bloomin' morse code anyways? It's bloody morse code?!" She finished loudly.

The doctor looked down to give her a look of disbelief, starting to open his mouth to retort before it promptly closed in fear. For below them, at the bottom of the ladder was a face of oozing tentacles attached to a slick, black and shimmering body that held moulding hands at the ends. It had been silent, so silent that it had almost caught up to them without even capturing their notice once – not even an inkling that something had followed them. The blue eyes of the Doctor landed directly onto the gruesome beast, before they settled onto Grace.

"Grace, if you look down don't panic or freak out."

The woman in question gulped. "It's here isn't it?" She asked full well knowing the answer to her question.

The pair of them shared a silent look of understanding before they began to ascend faster, taking extra care not to slip or make any sudden movements that could trigger the alien into doing anything more rash than it already had. Only, that plan would have worked, if the Doctor hadn't slipped slightly, allowing for a small bang to echo throughout the empty space they temporarily inhabited.

Then the creature let out a piercing screech; its legs clambering ever faster up those freezing rungs, gaining on its two prey faster than it had previously.

"Go, go, go, _go_!"

They clambered and raced and lept up those god-forsaken, frozen rungs, desperately trying to outrun that foul-smelling adversary.

It didn't take long for them to reach the top at the speed they had gone at, then again, it also hadn't taken their vengeful hunter very long to be just moments from their feet. They came to a stop at the top and Grace became increasingly anxious by how long they had to wait to get the bloody manhole open. She looked down – only a few moments before it caught them – she looked up – the Doctor was fiddling about and struggling to open the round, metal hole cap.

"Hey Doc, don't want to worry you, but by my estimation we have literally only seconds before we feed slobber-chops down there. Kinda need to get a shift on with the manhole." She said nervously.

"Nearly…got..it." The Doctor proclaimed in an incredibly strained manor. His sonic screwdriver had already failed to work since it wasn't deadlocked or even locked in the first place. It was too heavy for one person to lift no matter how strong that person was. Not even his superior biology could help him this time.

"Oh, for goodness sake." Grace was annoyed and scared and anxious and flustered. She climbed up to the same level as the Doctor, putting her hands on the other side. She looked him dead in the eyes before she began to count. On the mark of three they lifted the lid of the manhole, but only barely, and pushed it to the side, both of them grunting and groaning with the effort. The Doctor came out first and quickly hoisted grace out after him – the creatures leg only a centimetre away from swiping her own leg.

They faltered for a few seconds in the sunlight before running off once more; each of them exhausted beyond belief but too riddled with adrenaline that they would never stop. Soon a familiar blue police box came into view. This only provoked the two to sprint harder and faster.

The creature was still gaining on them.

The Doctors head turned to the side to look at Grace, the creature then back at his ship. It was even closer than it ever had been, just within arms length – that went for the Tardis and creature respectively. But, the Tardis was that tiny bit closer. The Doctor took out his key, shoved it desperately into the lock, turned and opened it – both Grace and the himself tumbling in through the doors as they shut loudly behind them. The creature crashing into the fortress that the Tardis truly was. It's legs clambering over the sides as it let out one last primal screech before stopping completely. It was almost as if they were camping but instead of it being rain on the tent roof it was a giant, homicidal spider that slightly more than pitter-pattered above them.

Leaning against the door of the Tardis, both the Doctor and Grace looked at each other briefly before laughing maniacally with each other. They stood up still laughing and embraced one another in relief that they had survived that ordeal.

"God that was a bit intense, wasn't it?" Grace said whilst pulling away.

The Doctor grinned. "Oh yes!"

Grace began to reply to the incredibly exited man before she stopped immediately in her tracks. Her eyes wandering into the large expanse she had just entered into. The room she was in was beyond what she could have ever expected. The dimmed, golden lights were soft and hazy, giving a very relaxed and homely feel to the room. There were coral-shaped beams that stretched and were woven impossibly upwards into the rafters. Wires were scattered everywhere as if the whole machine was slowly getting pieced back together and, in the centre, surrounded by a fence of metal railing and a moat of metallic grating was the most incredible thing she had ever seen. Stepping closer towards it – up the steps, her hand trailing across the railing – she watched as the buttons and levers lit up and let out an almost silent series of beeps and, letting her eyes trail upwards, she became in awe at the blue piston that rhythmically bolted upwards and downwards in the centre. Laying the palm of her hand on it she took and incredibly deep breath, almost as if the act itself was the most calming thing she had ever done in her entire life.

"So I'm assuming you like her then. The Tardis?"

Grace turned around, her awe now moulded deeply into the features she held upon her face. "I think she's wonderful. And you weren't kidding either; the inside is bigger than the outside, but the outside is also smaller than the inside, right? It's another reality." She finished amazed.

The Doctor smiled going up to the console with her. "Not quite. It's another dimension."

"That's incredible." She let out a disbelieving laugh, turning around on her heel and pivoting on the spot.

"Hey what are we gonna do with the – _ahhhh_!" Grace began in question, but ended in immense pain – an incredibly sharp throb in her leg and more specifically, the one that had been injured previously.

 _What's happening?_

The Doctor moved quickly towards her, steadying her body as she began to sway. "Hey, hey, I've got you. Don't worry it's just the medicine I gave you wearing off. A quick visit to the med-bay and you'll be fixed up in no time."

Grace groaned and rolled her eyes. "Great. Let's just hurry before I bleed to death."

"That's is my intention."

"Shut up."

—***—

Grace lay on the hospital bed bored out of her mind waiting for her leg to heal and for the Doctor to finish looking at her scans. It wasn't a particularly interesting room, the walls had a warm yellowish tinge to them and the was some medical equipment that she recognised and other ones which she had no bloody clue.

She tapped her finger impatiently on the railing of her bed, whilst her other hand played lightly with the IV that led from her wrist into whatever medicine she had been given to heal.

 _Boring, boring, boring._

Her mind couldn't handle the constant sound of absolutely nothing, it needed some sort of stimulus, a task, a thought – _anything._ But all she could think of was to dangerously tug at an IV, tap her fingers obnoxiously and, as she thought it, began to hum – it was rather loud and out of tune but at least it helped make the silence more bearable.

However, this only went on for a few moments before the Doctor started to become annoyed at the tuneless throb that invaded his ear canals.

"Can you stop? I'm trying to do things here."

"I've never felt time move so slow. You have any good conversations on you?" She asked hopefully.

"I literally talked to you five minutes ago." He sighed dramatically, "And can you stop messing with the IV? It can damage your nerves."

"They're already pretty damaged after today..." She mumbled to herself bitterly.

Soon however, a new though entered her mind begging for itself to be shared. "So…why does a Squib understand morse code? It's a bit of a redundant way of communication."

The Doctor turned towards her, his body leaning back against the desk he was working at. "Not for a Squib. It really is like a spider or a fly, it feels vibrations through its feet – or… uh… hands – and translated then into perfectly dictated words. Morse code is fantastic for a Squib." He said in boredom as if what he said were the most basic and boring of facts. Then he stood up, another question occurring to him. "So how do you know morse code?"

Grace shrugged her shoulders. "The usual. I just got a bit bored." She let out a smile in good humour.

"I have a feeling this is a theme with you."

"Oh yeah."

The Doctor smacked his hands together, making Grace jump slightly at the sudden loud noise. "So, I guess this is a good time to mention that it will take a few weeks to heal from that leg wound."

"So, I'm staying here?" Grace asked pointing down towards her bed.

The Doctor smiled and shrugged. "Well I can't let you go home with that nasty thing on your leg now can I. You'd just end up a bit dead now wouldn't you?" He added slightly condescending.

Grace looked down with a chuckle and shook her head. "No, I suppose not."

The Doctor got up from his station and began to leave with the promise of being back as soon as he could. His retreating form exiting the doorway as he mentioned something more about giving the Tardis a little bit more of a fix up, but just as he was about to leave her sight Grace sat up and called out to him, causing the man to stop in his tracks and look at her in varying shades of patience and impatience that equalled out surprisingly evenly.

"You never answered my question before." She paused to look at him, gage his reaction. He nodded at her to continue. "You never answered when I asked why you were there in the first place."

He leaned against the doorway, a more serious look encapsulated his face as his arms crossed in front of him. His head nodding towards her solidly just the once. "The Tardis picked you up on the scanner. I couldn't leave you inexperienced by yourself down there – that's just _stupid_. So I came down to make sure you were alright. And good thing I did too or you would have been dead by now. I'm just going to take the Squib back to Arcindate and then i'll be back. Is that alright?"

Grace nodded her head and yawned heavily once the Doctor left the room, the days events finally catching up her in full force. All she could think about as her eyes began to close was that she was actually, truly on the Tardis and that she had to stay for at least a few weeks. It also occurred to her that, if she played her cards right, she could potentially convince the Doctor to let her stay longer and, if she played them completely flush, there was a possibility she could convince him to take her on another adventure – obviously one with a lot less spidery-ness and gunge, but after today she knew she would crave experiences such as this one for the rest of her life. Even if the Doctor told her a resolute no she would still find things like this wether he liked it or not.

She was a Blakely after all and adventure had always run in her blood, right from the very start.

A smile appeared on her face as her thoughts formed into nothingness.

Oh what fun… and what heartbreak she would have.

* * *

 **So, this took longer than expected and, well, it was supposed to get released on january 1st 'cause I thought it would be nice to release it on the date it was set but nooopee that didnt happen. Well, over a month later and here we are with this massive chapter. I really wasnt sure wether to break it into seperate parts or not, but oh well it's all here now.**

 **So, I really wanna know what you guys think of this chapter because there are points I'm proud of but I'm not sure if it flows well or is just a bit janky overall.**

 **So, any comments are welcome wether positive, constructive or you're confused or have a theory. Comments really help keep me motivated and try to do better.**

 **Disclaimer now though is that the next chapter will probably take this amount of time to get posted as I have so many assignments for uni coming up this month and I think I'm actually gonna die.**

 **Anyways...**

 **Hope you guys enjoyed the chapter.**

 **-Live long and prosper.**


	5. Chapter 4 - No Sleep

Chapter Four

The console room had always seemed more peaceful during the night. It was silent and calming with nothing more than a slight hum and dimmed lights to occupy the space that was scarcely left empty. Grace left her hands to move gently over the knobs, levers and buttons that littered the console. She doubted half of them ever got used, well, maybe once – a long time ago, in the distant future. She sighed as she slowly moved away from the well lit, sentient console; wandering over to the the jump-seat which was yellowed and had clearly been worn down over the years. Grace sat down with a resounding thud. Her hand covering her face in desperation.

 _What am I going to do?_

She was exhausted beyond anything she could have ever imagined, but the strangest thing was that she had yet to even step foot off the Tardis since her injury. That had been a month ago. Two weeks had passed since her leg had fully healed and the Doctor had yet to mention anything about going anywhere – even just to drop Grace off back home. Grace had been so desperate for adventure that she never once suspected that the man she wanted to travel with may have had incredibly valid reasons of his own for not wanting her along before. She had known something was wrong from the moment she met him. Of course she had. She just didn't know the extent of to which his problems extended. Honestly, she still didn't. He was just as much a mystery to her in that moment as he was when he left on that fateful Christmas morning.

And that's when the screaming started.

It happened almost every time the Doctor was absent from the console room at night. Grace barely got any sleep anymore, just thinking about what she could do to help – if anything. After all, despite them being friends, she didn't know him well enough to bring it up with him; but it was just so brutal hearing those tortured, harrowing screams echoing throughout the walls of the Tardis. It was louder in her room, so unbearably loud. So much so that she decided that night that she needed to get away and have time to think of what to do without her ears being filled with the most pain-filled sounds she had ever heard. The Tardis console room had seemed like the perfect place at the time, now it just appeared that no matter where she ended up it would be truly, and wholly inescapable.

What was she supposed to do? How could she help? Should she? Was she really being as much of a coward as she thought herself to be? Grace shook her head, letting out a sigh of defeat she lay back further into the jump-seat. She certainly had a lot to figure out. Tonight just didn't seem like the one she would, let alone want to discover any of the possible answers.

Getting up from her seat, Grace wandered back over towards the console, her hands outstretched and reaching for the controls. If she couldn't take her mind off everything then maybe she could busy herself there. She could clean it up a bit, maybe put some loose wires back into their place – she hadn't worked with her father at his electrical company over each summer for nothing, Grace was pretty handy with electronics if she did say so herself…

… Maybe just not these ones.

She bent down to pick up a large cable. It was red and had the most peculiar ending attachments she had ever seen. She brought it over to the console, taking one look at it before realising there was nothing there that she could try to possibly figure out, without finding at least some sort of manual first. She dropped the cable where she stood, letting it clatter to the ground.

Who was she kidding? There was no way she was ever going to take her mind off everything. Even when she and the Doctor were in the same room together she found it hard to talk to him, even in their usual playful manner – her mind was just utterly plagued with noises and thoughts she wished she could either help with, or forget entirely. Undoubtably, he had already noticed her slight change in behaviour. It was obvious really and Grace had never been that great at hiding her feelings. If she didn't bring up his behaviour first then he would beat her to it.

Raising her head, Grace gazed towards the doors of the Tardis and began to wander down towards there deep, cobalt blue; her shoes causing a metallic vibration in the grating beneath her. Opening the doors, Grace let out a small smile before sitting down at the edge, her legs dangling over into the deep oblivion of space below her – no sense of danger or fear within her, only awe and wonder at the beauty that swam within her wide eyes. Never would there be a day when this would become boring or not worth it. Ever since she was a small girl she had gazed at the stars, wishing to so desperately among them, to guid lost souls across the universe. Her father had always encouraged these dreams, telling her that the only thing that could possibly be worse than dying, would be to lose sight of your dreams and leave your imagination in the dust.

Grace smiled sadly into the stars. Even after he had died, his voice rung strongly in her mind; always there and always guiding her through the constellations both above her and within her own mind. Wiping a tear away from her face she knew exactly what her father would have said to her in that moment. It was something he had told her ever since she could remember…

" _Daddy I don't know what to do?" A young two-year-old Grace said in desperation. She was crying hysterically and had been for the past hour. Her first pet – a small tabby-cat called Tati – was in her last hours of life. A tumour in the brain the adults had told her, but she just couldn't understand. Why couldn't they save her? Couldn't they take the tumour out of her brain?_

" _No." That was the answer she had kept being told, "there's nothing that can be done. I'm sorry Grace."_

 _It wasn't long after that where she had been told that this was the very last day she would have with Tati as it was far too cruel for her to keep living. They tried to explain to her how much pain she was in and how unfair it was. Grace couldn't disagree more. Why couldn't Tati be helped? Surly there was something she could do?_

 _She hadn't gone near the cat all day despite her mother and brother telling her constantly that this was her last chance. But it wasn't the last chance, at least not in her eyes. She was weighing everything up and didn't know how spending time with her beloved tabby would help; Grace, in fact, was pretty much convinced that if she spent time with Tati, she would surly secure what she was being told the entire time._

 _So she had run away into her room, propelled herself onto her bed and began to sob uncontrollably. It was about an hour later when her father returned home from work – she hadn't stopped crying since; silent sobs still ran in sleek motions down her bright red cheeks. Her pillow was sodden as was the top that her mother had picked out for her to wear that day. When her father came up into her room, she looked up with a gaze of pure desperation in her eyes as she asked her question, filling it with a much hope and optimism she had the strength to dredge up in that moment. Her fathers eyes filled with sympathy as he rushed over towards her bed and bundled her up in his arms._

" _Oh I'm so sorry sweetheart." He told her, giving her a tighter hug before continuing to speak, "Today is when you learn about one of the hardest parts of life. When something or someone is suffering to the point where nothing can be helped, all we can do is be there for them in their last moments and make sure that we do everything we can to make them feel loved and comfortable." Grace turned her head to look at her father, eyes glassy and confusion shining in her dark green eyes._

" _But what if someone isn't like Tati? What if someone's sick and they need what you said? Or just upset?"_

 _Looking into her eyes her gave her a look or understanding that she she couldn't quite yet comprehend; "Then we do the same for them. It doesn't matter who it is, but if someone needs help then you help them in the exact same way you would look after Tati… just maybe not as intensely okay?" After a few moments, he pulled away from Grace and stood up up off the bed. He held out a hand for her to take. "Now lets make sure Tati knows how much you love her and lets make sure she has the best day of her life."_

 _Grace grabbed his hand and he led her back through the flat onto the living room._

Grace had stayed with Tati for every second for the rest of that day, up until the moment she was taken away from her and sent to the operating theatre of a veterinary practice, where she would take her very final breaths. It was incredibly tough on her that day, but she was so thankful for her father – everything would have been so much worse if she had stayed away. Those words had followed her ever since; putting them into practice whenever the situation arose. Even if she was unable to give that to her father and younger sister, she was damned sure she would try everything she possibly could to help people that truly needed it. It's what she had always done, after all. And that's what she would continue to try and do. Help.

With that running through her mind and her fathers words guiding her, she decided to go and check on her friend who seemed to possess such agony within him. Grace began to remove her legs from the ledge and put her hand to the side to hoist herself up, only, it was not the floor of the Tardis that was below her. It was more soft and warm and suspiciously shaped like a hand. It didn't take much to realise whom it belonged to.

"Leaving so soon?" The Doctor asked distantly, a sad smile playing on his lips. Grace turned her head towards him. Slowly, she removed her hand and repositioned her legs so they were dangling over the edge once more. She hadn't even noticed him sit down.

She gave him a small smile back, "Not if you don't want me to?"

His smile suddenly dropped. The mask broken as the the tiredness and guilt finally bore its way through the almost indestructible facade he had constructed over the years. "You heard didn't you? Of course you did, Its just about impossible not to…" He trailed off, his hand wiping down his face tiredly.

Grace wasn't sure entirely what to do in that situation, but she knew she had to do something, even if it may end up badly in the end it was worth a shot in the dark – always. She grabbed his hand and squeezed it tightly, hoping desperately that it would give at least some form of reassurance or safety.

She glanced up at him. "Everybody experiences pain and everybody has nightmares. Sometimes you just need someone there to tell you it's alright, or a shoulder to lean on – even if you don't say anything, having someone there can make all the difference in the world."

His gaze flickered from the constellations towards Grace. His eyes connecting with her own in confusion, wonder and guilt, "Why?"

"What do you mean why?" Grace asked in confusion, a nervous chuckle exiting her lips.

"Why help me?"

"Because I want to." Grace never once broke eye contact with him, making sure he understood that she meant every. Last. Word.

She would not have him believing her to be a liar and a fake. That's the last thing she would ever want.

"I don't deserve it." The Doctor said sternly as if it were the most true thing in all the universe.

"I don't believe that anybody deserves to experience what you're going through…"

"…you don't know what I've done.."

"…and I don't need to."

After that they both became incredibly quiet. Grace staring firmly at the man in front of her whilst he looked over her features trying to find any finch or flicker of regret upon them. He found absolutely nothing but blinding sincerity.

"You really mean it don't you?"

Grace didn't say anything in return; instead she kept ahold of the Doctors hand, pulling him up to his feet along with her own self. She led them both up the grating and back up to the console that seemed to glow brighter with the presence of the Doctor.

The aforementioned man reached out and laid a hand on the control panel, a small smile playing across his features as he did so. There was no way he was going try and go back to sleep now, not with all the memories that haunted his subconscious every time his eyelids sealed shut and the darkness took over. No, he would be quite occupied here, after all there was so much to fix and put back together with the Tardis that it could potentially take centuries before he finally put everything back into their rightful places. After that maybe he would take a look through the box he kept under the console. It was a medium sized, wooden box that contained many memories from adventures he'd so fondly recall upon; they were relics he'd taken during a previous life – a better life.

But first he had Grace to appease. He turned around to her only to find she was already transfixed on what he was doing. He sighed knowing it would be harder than expected to persuade her to leave. He took a step towards her only for the woman in question to hold up her hand in a silent gesture. She shook her head.

"Stop. You don't need to. I get it. I really, _really_ get it. You want to be alone and I respect that." Grace paused and gave him an unreadable look. She lifted a finger, "But, if you ever need me you know exactly where I am. Don't you dare hesitate okay? If I'm asleep I don't care just do it yeah? Yeah? Okay cool. Now that's out of the way, I'll leave you to do whatever it is you want to do."

As she began to leave, a stunned Doctor turned towards her in shock, "Just like that? You're going to leave just like that? That easy?"

Grace shrugged her shoulders, indifferent, "Yeah, I mean it's pretty clear what you want right now. Unless, I've gotten it completely wrong and you want me to stay?"

"No… uh… you're right…"

 _Liar._

"… and it almost looks like you've had less sleep than I have…"

 _Excuses_.

Grace looked at him unsurely, seeing the conflict on his face right before her very eyes. She stepped back towards him, "Are you sure? I'd happily stay up if you want."

The Doctor let out a breath and shook his head, "No I'll be okay, but, tell you what? If I need to I'll come and get you. Does that sound good?" He gave her a large grin as if to seal the deal.

Grace could tell he was lying, but wasn't about to call him out on it yet. They weren't close enough for it and besides, trust takes time to build and he would need both if he was going to share anything with her. Grace didn't know how long that would be, but she would wait if he would let her.

"Okay if that's what you want."

Grace nodded her head before turning around on her feet, heading back out towards the hallways. She had only made it a few steps before she was stopped by the Doctors voice:

"Grace? I just wanted to say…" he sighed and paused, "…I just wanted to say… goodnight, Grace."

Despite the obvious change in direction, she still smiled at him kindly, "Goodnight Doctor." And with that she left into the infinite expanse of hallway that loomed beyond and was interwoven into the almost impossible spaceship.

Despite her leaving, the Doctor still stared into the way in which she left for a while afterwards. His emotions were twisting, turning and burning deep within his soul. He just didn't know what to make of it all and what everything he felt meant, but there was one emotion he found that screamed and barrelled and fought its way ahead of the others. An emotion he thought he would never be able to conceive once more, but there it was shining as if all the stars themselves had joined together to shed light on the marvel that had begun to grow within him.

And that emotion was hope.

It was tiny and small – barely even there at all – but it was. And that was more than enough for him.

* * *

 **So, here's chapter 4! This was going to be posted a bit later but I couldn't keep this story in my head any longer. It just keeps naggng at me constanty and I'm honestly not mad about it. Im so exited to dive into this and tell Graces story as true to her as is humanly possible.**

 **The next chaper is finally diving into Series One, Episode One: Rose! and it's going to be done a bit differently than normal.**

 **I hope you guys enjoyed reading this chaper as much as I did writing it and if you did, please leave a comment to let me know what you think so far; what you've enjoyed about it, if you have any questions/theories or if you have any constructive feedback - I won't take offence (but would prefer nice ones lol).**

 **Anyways I hope you've had a nice week.**

 **-Live long and prosper.**


	6. Chapter 5 - Rose Part One

Chapter 5 - Rose

 **Saturday 5** **th** **March, 2005**

"Come on, Grace. You wanted adventure!"

"I want to sleep. Give me the day off."

"But, Autons'!"

"But, no."

"Come _on_."

"No."

"Just for a little bit?"

" _No."_

"Just a peek?"

"How many times do I need to reword the word ' _no'_ before you get the message?"

This particular argument had been going on for quite sometime now and, quite frankly, they were both bloody sick of it. From Graces point of view this was going to be utterly and overwhelmingly _boring_ considering it was just present day Earth outside the Tardis doors. She just didn't know how to get it through to the alien beside her that she had seen it before – many times, every day kind of times, every day up until three months ago kind of times; too god-damn-many times! Today was perfect for relaxing as it had become quite the rarity to do so since the Doctor decided to become space _Indiana Jones_ and took her to as many different places as possible to help out the indigenous species; so, going to Earth was not exactly the height of excitement, or even a priority to her in that moment.

From the Doctors perspective, that was only getting back into the swing of things. He was on a roll with the adventures and had no intention of slowing them down in their frequency, only speeding them up. They were keeping his mind occupied and – as far as he knew – they were actually helping the people the met along the way. So, essentially a win-win situation; he just couldn't figure out what Graces problem with this particular adventure was.

And that absolutely atrocious lack of understanding just so happened to lead them both into their default defence strategies – being the most stubborn little creatures that the universe had ever seen. No way was either one of them going to give in, only strategy was ever going to win that fight.

Grace sighed in what seemed like defeat, raking an irritable hand through her hair roughly; "Okay, okay– _fine_. You're not giving up, neither am I, we're going absolutely _nowhere_ – so what I propose is this; one great big, scary compromise. I mean wow look at that, we might both get what we want in the end of this!" Grace stated in the most deadpan voice she could muster. If she didn't take a nap soon she was going to fall down and injure herself on all the junk left on the floor.

She didn't quite fancy that, surprisingly.

The Doctor looked at her cautiously, as if he were unsure over the motives of this sudden change. To him, in that moment, she was as unpredictable as a lioness hunting her prey. Even if he was over-exaggerating just a tad, well, a large tad, it still seemed like a pretty apt description of the current situation. Suspicion was inherently the correct approach to this.

"Okay, what are you suggesting?" the Doctor said as he crossed his arms across his chest and raised and eyebrow in question.

Grace beamed suspiciously, "Well, say you leave the Tardis to help with the… uh… Autons? Well, I'll stay here, but be on comms helping out and keeping an eye on the scanners in case you get sneak attacked. Sound good to you?"

He sighed, letting his arm fall to the console, whilst the other stretched out in gesture, "Yes of course it does, but, it would be a lot more helpful if you were out there giving me a hand, wouldn't it? Things have gone a bit more smoothly since you came along, don't you think?"

"Doctor, look at me; I'm human, my body can't keep going like yours can. Physically I wont be able to keep up with you today, but mentally, I'm still present, so I honestly think this is the best way to get what were both after, yeah?" Grace said tiredly in a desperate attempt to finally get him to see. She may have felt confused about the second part of his sentence, but she could not tell if it was tactic or if he genuinely meant it – either way thinking deeply on it would not save Earth, neither would it end that argument any sooner. "Please just say yes?"

And he did look at her, from the way she swayed slightly and desperately tried to keep her eyes open, to the way she spoke with more irritability than usual, he finally started to understand just what she was talking about. Grace was not the same species as him and he needed to remember that. She had many more limitations as a human compared to a Time Lord.

 _She looks exhausted._

 _Maybe I have overdone it slightly._

"Okay."

Graces head snapped up in shock and disbelief.

"What?"

He shrugged his shoulders, "I said okay." He said nonchalantly.

"No, no I got that part, but seriously, _what?"_ She said in disbelief, eyes wide and staring.

"I. Am. Agreeing. With. You." He said slowly and condescendingly, starting to become irritated with her seeming lack of basic understanding.

Grace rolled her eyes, "Yes, thank you for that, I did understand you perfectly fine, just you actually agreeing with me is a new one."

"Would you rather I changed my mind?"

"God no."

"Well, then lets get the comms and scanner set up and get moving!" He said loudly and suddenly, jerking his body away from the console, abruptly leaving the room to fetch the comms, making Grace twitch slightly in surprise. She shook her head and chuckled lowly, making her way towards the scanner. Honestly, she couldn't believe she had gotten away with it and actually won! Grace was pretty chuffed with herself if she did say so herself, which she indeed very much did. Fiddling about with the frequency of the scanner, she managed to link it up with the position of the comms, which were currently coming along a close corridor; Doctor in tow. She was so glad in that moment that the Doctor had simple settings for his scanner, being able to do something to help in the Tardis made her feel at least vaguely helpful, which was clearly a decent amount more helpful than understanding absolutely nothing.

The Doctor came back into the room like a whirlwind, briefly handing Grace the comms – who held them stunned — before planting his own in his ears and checking the scanner. He grinned at her upon seeing it was already programmed, before tunnelling under the console hurriedly for the remote detonator he had spent the last few days building (along with the bombs it came with) before rushing out and planting them in his pockets. He grinned manically before moving slightly towards the doors, bouncing as if he were a child on a sugar rush about to try out all the rides in Disneyland.

"Okay should be a few hours before Henricks goes BOOM! I'll lead the Autons' there and then we can trace the signal!"

"Okay… ?"

"Okay, see you soon, bye!"

And with that he left, leaving Grace positively stunned as she numbly placed the comms into her ear, hearing the buzzing of confirmation that the devices made once they had been linked. Slowly, she made her way over to the jump seat and sat down. Grace honestly couldn't keep up with that man sometimes, from the way his entire emotional state would flip on a whim to the way he would go on adventure after adventure after adventure and never once consider having one day as a break. Either way those thoughts slowly began to fray away as the darkness within her vision coiled around them, smothering their meaning until nothing was left but the abyss.

Nothing but the abyss and one sleeping woman who finally had the peace she needed to do so.

—-********—

" _Grace?"_

" _Grace?"_

" _Grace!"_

" _GRACE WAKE UP!"_

"Ahhh!" Grace exclaimed in fright as she fell off the jump seat in shock. She fumbled for the earpiece that had fallen out during her tumble, hurriedly blowing the dirt off and wiping it on her jeans before putting it back into her ear. She sheepishly cleared her throat, still crouched on the ground.

"Grace here, how can I help?" She said putting on her best 'call centre' impression and desperately hoping she had gotten away with being asleep during a possibly critical situation and that the Doctor hadn't caught on too much. Either way she was going to deny everything, no matter how annoyed the Doctor may seem.

" _Oh, so you're awake now, are you?"_

Apparently getting away with it was a great-big, resounding no.

"I've been awake the whole time. What do you need help with?" Grace put in quickly.

" _I need you to materialise the Tardis on the roof of Henriks. Nice topic dodge by the way."_

Grace blinked. It was very clear that she could neither pilot the Tardis, nor put in co-ordinates and expect to end up in the correct century, let alone getting it to the exact minute. This was a very, very not great situation that had been placed upon her. Hell, the Doctor shouted at her when she ate too close to the console, so why on Earth would he ever teach her to pilot the ship? It was an oversight of tremendous magnitude on his part and definitely needed more than what sitting in the Tardis called for.

If her blank and despondent look was anything to go by, it was certainly safe to say that she was freaking out slightly and just about one-hundred-percent finished with that aliens shenanigans for the next few days at least!

"What?" She said blankly, still in disbelief about what the Doctor was asking from her.

" _What? What do you mean 'what'?"_ Was his infuriating reply.

Grace raked her hand slowly down her face, "What as in; what in the hell do you expect me to do? I don't know how to fly this thing! And now you want me to somehow get her to you. You're so reaching right now, mate." She finished with a shake of her head.

" _Ah."_

"Yeah 'ah'. Please tell me you've got a plan B, Doctor?" She was worried but tried not to let it seep into her words and it would have worked if her voice hadn't raised ever-so-slightly on the next time she called his name.

" _Okay, okay right! There's a section of the console I haven't used in a very long time called a Telepathic Circuit. And because I know you'll ask for the simple answer, which is incredibly frustrating by the way, you put your hands in it and think about where you want to go."_

"Okay so basically, I just think about your location and your end goal and it should take me there, yeah?" Grace asked in hope, desperately wanting that for once, this was going to be as smooth as he so simply put it – she doubted it, but she still hoped.

" _Yes, that sounds about right, just don't drift into other thoughts or this could be horrendous."_

"Okay, focus solely on you. There are easier ways to ask a girl out, but whatever." Grace pushed back with a smirk and a nervous chuckle, desperate to ease the tension and panic. She waved a hand in nonchalance even though she was the only one to see it – it brought her comfort to witness her own actions of serenity, as if simply being able to see what emotions were needed was enough to simulate the same level of similar feeling within herself.

A groan sounded off from the other end of the receiver.

" _Grace, just-just shut up!"_

A small smile peeked its way through the nervousness; genuine and shining. They may have been in dire straights, but at least she had managed to distract the Doctor from thinking too hard about his apparent death with her ill-timed bouts of shameless flirting.

She moved over to the console, fiddling about with knobs and levers, dials and handles; trying desperately to find this contraption that would apparently take her to the roof of Henriks. There was just so much to sift through and sort out and find and discover and honestly, it was just all pretty overwhelming. Here she was, days away from turning twenty-two, and she was expected to master flying a spaceship flown by an alien man who had over seven-hundred years of experience in flying it who, quite honestly, was abhorrent at flying in general. So, doing this seemed like the impossible task that never seemed to end – the only end now would be losing the Doctor in the explosion if she figured everything out too late.

He could very well die in a few minutes.

Desperate to find the Circuit, she collapsed hurriedly to the floor, hoping and begging that somehow, just somehow, she'd be able to seek out that illusive contraption that seemed akin to the rarity of gold dust in that very moment. Tongue poking out between her teeth, her eyes wandered over the scene before her with keen precision as her hands quickly moved objects out of her way. There was so much junk that it almost seemed like a never-ending mound, similar to the beginnings of what could only be described as the foundations of a hoarders stash.

She sat back from underneath the console and wiped her forehead, letting out a strained breath. It was in that moment when she was truly beginning to regret not leaving with the Doctor; then again, if they were both gone no one would be there to get the Tardis onto the roof and they'd both die in excruciatingly painful agony from being brutally blown apart. In essence, she had won their argument by quite a bit.

 _Ha. Take that, Doctor._

The Doctor may have died if she hadn't figured it out, but she had the moral high ground so everything seemed like a cause for celebration.

Well, almost.

" _You've gone silent. I don't like it when you go silent – something's usually gone wrong when you go silent. I'm on the roof. Please tell me you're nearly here?"_

Her arms dropped loosely to her sides in defeat, "I wish I could say I was. I've looked everywhere, Doctor, I just cant find anything. I don't know if I'll be there on time. I'm sorry…" she ended sombrely, but, much to her surprise, was cut off by a mild chuckle coming in over the intercom.

" _Grace, did you not press the big blue button that has the bold letters 'T' and 'C' on it, standing for Telepathic Circuit?"_

"Ah… no, no I haven't."

" _Well, there you go."_

"Okay, okay I'm on it. See you in a few minutes." And with that she turned off the comm to prevent any potential interferences that may travel through them when she finally managed to find the circuit. Grace strode around the console with purpose, spotting the rather large – and embarrassingly obvious – blue button that lay central on the control panel. She rolled her eyes at it briefly before slamming her hand onto it, not wanting to waste anymore time than she already had, completely desperate to get that ordeal over and done with.

The button sank into the console as a brilliant golden light spread out down a perfectly straight line heading from the core of the Tardis all the way down past the edge of the control panel. The lines spread out either side of the original line and traveled – top and bottom – parallel to one another, out the way. Soon the entire console began to slide open revealing pinkish grooves that looked a mixture between, sand rippled close to the tide, canyons and what she imagined the top of the palette may look like. If there was anything to prove that ship was living that would be it.

Ordinarily, she would have stopped and marvelled at it for all its unconventional beauty and seeming impossibility, but time had run away from her far too much already, so, quite simply, she plunged her hands into the crevices and closed her eyes tightly. She thought terribly hard about the Doctors whereabouts as she grasped the circuit for dear life, Grace just hoped it was enough. She thought of the roof and him, with the date and the moment. Grace no longer felt like she was in the Tardis, or anywhere for that matter as all her energy and thoughts converged in that specific moment – _on_ that specific moment.

Her hands began to shake but she could not even begin to comprehend her whereabouts, let alone fathom the concept of being in a spaceship.

She did not know how long she had held the Telepathic Circuit for, but she barely noticed when she stopped.

It took a few minutes and a few times of her name being called before her senses finally began to kick back in. First it was her sense of touch; her hands were being tightly held and lightly shaken, then it was smell, it smelt like smoke and ash and plastic, then her hearing, which picked up on her own name despite the constant, low ringing, then it was her sight, which began to slowly take in the person in front of her – although, honestly, she did not wait for full focus before her shoulders sagged in relief; not for the first, or last time that night.

"Oh, thank fuck." Grace declared as she brought the stunned and mildly confused alien into a hug.

The Doctor, whilst admittedly slightly shocked, tentatively hugged her back, "Any reason I'm getting hugged right now?" He asked perplexed.

She sighed, "You stress me out sometimes." And pulled away, patting his shoulder with one resounding _thud_ before turning away and wandering over towards the jump seat once more, plonking herself down dramatically.

The Doctor followed her and sat down with just as much dramatic flare as Grace had exuded just moments before hand. He let out a puff of air before giving her a grin that was slightly tinged with manic tendencies. He nudged her shoulder a few times before folding his arms across his chest, seemingly being the sole holder of every ounce of smugness in the universe at that very moment.

"See, everything turned out fine."

Grace sharply turned her head towards him, mild fury beginning to simmer beneath the surface.

"And what if it hadn't?" Obviously, Grace knew better than to dabble in the infinities and possibilities of "what if"s, but she couldn't help it as they occupied her minds thoughts; prodding her into scenarios that were so unlikely that they likely would never come to be, or even, in situations such as this, would she trail down roads of possibilities that no longer exist as the future had already happened and was already out of the present into the past. Logically, she knew that being annoyed at the Doctor for a supposed future concocted by her minds judgement was absurd, but she simply couldn't help it; her brain just wasn't designed to stop thinking – ever.

The Doctors smile widened, even if it may have seemed impossible; "Well, then I'd be dead!" He said with all the excitement of a puppy that had just discovered peanut butter for the first time.

Grace raised her eyebrow, turning round to see him more clearly, with the most unamused expression adorning her features.

"You said that just a tad bit too happy. You know, just a tad." Grace said as she brought her thumb and forefinger together, just to emphasise her point to that next level.

The Doctor raised his in response, "What? Would you prefer I said it like this?," he said as he leaned forwards, frowning unnaturally and slumping forwards, swinging his arms in a ' _gosh darn it'_ kind of way as he lowered his voice mockingly, "Oh no! I guess I'd be dead, how horrible."

"Doctor." Grace said sternly, saying no more, but still getting her point across once she noticed the Doctor – to his credit – look somewhat sheepish. She hated making him feel upset about his thoughts, but at least it made him think they were anything but happy, like he assumed they must have been despite his obvious misery.

It had been over a month since they talked in the console room and watched out into the stars. Surprisingly, it didn't take very long at all to take Grace up on her offer to help. He just could not take it any longer, the screams, fires and everlasting, leering mass of self-loathing; many nights when the monsters kept him awake did he seek out Graces comfort. It wasn't anything beyond talking, or the occasional embrace or hand hold, but that was more than enough. He had unintentionally spilled his guts during these nights and given more information than was obviously intended. Grace knew this and always made sure that he was okay with her knowing the next day; he always was, but he would always be slightly awkward for a few hours before telling her how cathartic it had actually been to get it off his chest finally.

She would never invalidate the horrors he had been through.

A tragedy such as that should never be carried by simply one person.

Shaking herself pout of these thoughts, grace nudged the Doctor and attempted to disband the the somber atmosphere that had begun to sweep over them like a thick layer of frozen snow.

"So," she began, "what did you find?"

He seemed to perk up tremendously at this, clearly grateful for the change in conversational direction.

"I have a signal. It's not very strong, but I think we can start to track down the Nestene Consciousness a lot more quickly now." The Doctor said in excitement as he jumped up and leaned against the console briefly before turning around and looking at the scanners, "And to think Rose Tyler thought they were students…" he trailed off.

Grace perked up upon hearing that name, before saying to herself on a sigh; "Yeah that sounds about right."

"What was that?" The Doctor said half paying attention, but not truly caring or wanting to know as he was so fixated on the screens in front of him.

"Oh nothing!" She said with a grin.

 _As if,_ she thought to herself in humour. Rose Tyler would never be "nothing", not ever.

"Okay." He said in reply, before declaring once more that he had landed the Tardis and was about to leave again. Grace let out a noise in confirmation.

"Remember that I actually need you to be awake for when I call, okay?" He pointed at her once he was close to the doors. Grace simply rolled her eyes and waved him off.

"I'll be on it. Don't you worry I got about five hours sleep while you were gone. I am the essence of awakeness at present." She said in a way and tone that clearly let anyone close to her know straight away that every word that left her mouth was nothing but pure and utter bull-shit.

"Well 'essence of awakeness' I'll test that out later," he began, mirth clear in his voice, "Right now, I'm going to find the signal. So stay conscious." He finished and left the Tardis with haste.

Grace wasn't lying when she said she had had a decent amount of sleep. She was feeling restless and irritable, desperate to do something productive. She sighed and got up, making her way towards the kitchen for a snack.

—*******—-

She returned the the control room rather quickly, a bowl of left-over pasta in hand. She set the bowl onto an empty ledge on the console before reaching her arms out onto the desktop, leaning all of her weight onto the array of panels before glancing up at the scanner. The Doctor had made incredibly quick track – quicker than she would have expected from him, considering all of his tendencies to wander off and partake in largely unrelated things. Grace was very much impressed with his efficiency.

She lifted a fork of pasta to her mouth and shoved it in, her other hand adjusting the scanner. She idly glanced at it before what she saw stopped her dead in her tracks. The Powell Estate. If she hadn't have swallowed her food at that point, Grace would have undoubtedly dribbled it all over the console as her mouth hung largely agape.

 _Now that's interesting_.

Closing her mouth, she quickly turned on the comms, surprising the man on the other side of them with their buzz. He had not expected her to be in contact so soon.

" _To what do I owe the pleasure, miss Blakely?"_ He asked sarcastically over the earpiece, humour lacing every word.

Eyes still trained on the scanner, she idly shrugged, "Nothing much, was hoping you could entertain me before the boredom fully takes over." She finished dully, spinning the fork in her hand. She heard a chuckle from the other side.

" _Never in my life have I met someone with an attention span as short as yours."_ The Doctor said, still laughing slightly.

Grace rolled her eyes, a small smile playing at the corner of her mouth, "Come on. Have you met yourself? You're the most impatient bloke in the universe."

" _To answer your question; yes, I have met myself and no, it was not pleasant. I also take offence to that statement."_

Grace let a laugh slip before she caught herself and covered up hastily with an ill-timed cough that wasn't at all convincing. In the midst of it all, the fork she had been spinning flew vigorously from her hand and landed with a rather large _clang_ that echoed noisily off the metal grating. Grace scrunched her face at the noise before heading over to pick it up. She was saddened to see it was now very much dirty and unusable. Unfortunately, her bowl was still very much full of food. She stared at her fork then back to the bowl mournfully, knowing full well there wasn't enough time to get a new one.

A sigh sounded off from the other side. Grace had no doubt that the Doctor had heard her forks rather noisy gander into aerodynamics.

" _You're eating in the console room again, aren't you?"_ It wasn't a question, but rather a statement.

Grace rubbed the back of her head, "No…?" Now that was more a question than statement and they both knew it. The Doctor groaned, rubbing his hand over his face, no doubt.

" _Grace, we've talked about this…"_

"So, where's the signal leading to then? Where abouts on the estate?" Grace quickly interjected, eager to move on from her seemingly prohibited action. She glanced at the bowl and shook her head, feeling the need to eat more strongly now than ever. She really hoped that the Doctor would go along with her this time, if only to finally see some proper, real-life Auton action. Grace quite liked that jingle; Auton Action. She liked it quite a bit.

" _It's coming from the top level of the building in front of me. Only problem is how to get up there as I seem to have gotten a bit lost – also, don't think I'm not going to talk to you about having food around the console when I get back."_ The Doctor told her, exasperation clear and ringing through is voice.

Grace leant against the console further, not even needing to look at the scanner before giving him directions, purposely ignoring the comment on her food.

"Walk to your right until you get to the grey bin, then go through the doors, up the stairs to the top level and then all that's left is to find the flat you're looking for. Simple."

Through the monitor she saw him do just that as he lightly jogged over to the bins and up the stairs, _"So, how do you know this place so well?"_ He asked in curiosity, genuinely wanting to know himself.

Grace smiled fondly to herself as she played absently with her fingers; "I grew up and lived here until I was sixteen – before my Grandfather died and left a lot of money behind that none of us were aware he had. There were so many good times here, back in old 226. Still own it. Never could part with the memories it holds." She finished fondly, drifting into old memories. Only those memories would have to be recalled later as the Doctor called back over the comms.

" _Well, that's funny, because I just passed 226. The signals coming from next door."_

Grace froze, but wasn't at all surprised that the signal had landed itself there. After all, a certain blonde occupant had always had a knack for getting herself into more trouble than anyone could possibly comprehend her making. She truly was something else…

" _I'm going in, so, feel free to comment, but I can't talk back because I'll look insane."_

"Okay." Grace replied, grateful that the alien had decided to take the domestic and neural approach this time around, well, that was until he began to unscrew the catflap on the door and, rather unceremoniously, stuck his head in it.

The man was hopeless.

 _So much for not looking insane._

Luckily, a certain blonde was on the other side and opened the door with haste.

" _What are you doing here?"_ The Doctor said in surprise and confusion, jumping to his feet.

Rose gave him a look of disbelief as her facial expression rearranged itself to match, _"'Cause I live here."_

The Doctor matched her expression, becoming more confused than ever, _"Well, what do you do that for?"_

"' _Cause I do."_

At that grace snorted. Rose and the Doctor's interaction being largely entertaining for her. She never expected this meeting – this clash of worlds to come together – but, my god, was she glad it did. She had a feeling she could watch those two talk to one another and be largely entertained at how neither would be able to understand each other fully. But, that was only a thought, one that probably would never see the day of its near impossible fruition. Grace leant forwards towards to screen intent on catching every moment from then on.

" _I'm only at home 'cause somebody blew up my job."_ Rose concluded, leaning in closer in hopes of getting her point across as clearly and simply as possible.

Grace grinned, "You know, Doctor you would probably make more friends if you didn't replace 'hello' with explosives." She snickered only to be cut off by a painful static noise as the man in question roughly rubbed his ear.

"Rude." Grace grumbled as she rubbed her now sore ear. She could have sworn the corner of his mouth twitch upwards a that. Not wanting to hear the static again, Grace decided to watch the scene play out and only comment when the Doctor was indeed alone enough that they could converse – much to her own personal dismay.

The Doctor moved on quickly, however, and whipped out his sonic screwdriver, _"I must have picked up the wrong signal,"_ He said looking at his buzzing device, before, rather rudely, knocking on Rose's forehead, " _Nah, bonehead. Ill be off then. Bye."_ He concluded but didn't get very far in the way of leaving before Rose grabbed his jacket and yanked him inside the flat.

" _You. Inside. Right now."_ Rose said gruffly as the pulled the Doctor into her home. Shutting the door behind her, Rose's mother, Jackie, called from the distance in curiosity.

" _Who is it?"_ Jackie Tyler called.

Rose casually went to see her, leaning against the doorway of her mothers bedroom, before jutting a thumb over her shoulder, " _He's part of the inquiry. Give us ten minutes."_ She said evenly, fully convincing Jackie.

Grace smiled at Rose through the monitor, still viewing her from the Doctors perspective. She was glad to see that Rose was still just as spirited as ever.

"She is good." Grace said softly, only receiving a distant hum in return from someone who clearly did not care in the slightest.

" _She deserves compensation!"_ Jackie called out sternly from her bedroom, desperate for this newcomer to give the money, she knew Rose deserved. The Doctor came to stand in the doorway.

" _Huh,"_ he said sarcastically, _"we're talking millions."_

Whilst his face clearly stated he wanted to leave and follow Rose, Grace knew Jackie would not let him escape that easily.

There was only one way a situation like this ever went with Jackie Tyler, and it was always immensely amusing.

Jackie stood up and cleared her throat; " _I'm in my dressing gown."_ She stated whilst moving her hair back.

And so, it began.

The Doctor looked at her absently, _"Yes, you are."_ He simply said before finding a rather interesting corner on the ceiling.

Grace snickered, "You having fun there, Doc?" He did not reply, but by the way his jaw audibly tightened, it was pretty damn obvious she had gotten to him. Oh, she would have fun with this later.

" _There's a strange man in my room._ " Jackie continued, smoothing out her dressing gown.

" _Yes, there is."_ The Doctor replied curtly, feeling more uncomfortable by the second.

" _Well, anything could happen?"_

For a moment Grace thought the doctor had broken as no words, sounds or even breathing could be heard from the poor man after being propositioned by the one, and only, Jackie Tyler. The only way she could tell he was still alive was when, after a few moments a small squeak came from him, before he vehemently shook his head; responding in one large, resounding; _"No."_

He took off before Grace could catch a glimpse of Jackie's expression, which she was very much disappointed to have missed. Grace deflated as a pout adorned her lips.

Through the screen, Rose was hurriedly tidying up the living room. It hadn't changed one bit since Grace had last been there – from the old, red overthrow on the armchair, to the small fireplace, to that incredibly old, antique coffee table that she and Rose had broken so many time over the years, that she wondered if the table was indeed more superglue than wood. It would be interesting to check it out some time… Grace caught herself. She hadn't been there in over a year and knew very well why she couldn't just turn up like she used to. Everything had changed, ever since the incident…

But, those weren't things to dwell on in that moment.

The Doctor was now looking at a gossip magazine and she had only just caught the end of his reading as he declared a couple would never last as one was gay, and the other an alien.

Now that caught her attention.

"How do you know?" Grace asked over the intercom, trying to rid herself of the memories held within the flat he currently occupied.

He shrugged, " _Just do."_ Was his reply. He then flipped through a book on the table, declaring the ending to be sad.

Grace back up off the console and wandered around slightly, amused by her friend.

"I can't tell if you can read that fast naturally, or if you just read the last page and skimmed the rest to look impressive. I vote the latter." Grace said amused. She could practically feel the eye roll through the comms.

" _Now, Grace, we've got to leave some mysteries in the universe, now don't we?"_ He replied in mock happiness before fiddling about with an envelope. He then proceeded to look at himself in the mirror; _"Ah, not that bad. Could have been worse. Mind, look at the ears."_ The Doctor declared before flicking them repeatedly.

Grace scoffed, turning her head back round to the scanner.

"You act like you've never seen your own face before. And stop playing with your ears, they're fine. Your face is actually quite well proportioned. The ears balance out the nose and make it look normal."

" _You know, I can't tell if that was a compliment or not?"_

"Now, Doctor, we've got to leave some mysteries in the universe, now don't we?" Grace replied mockingly, a large smile taking over her mouth as she bit her lip in anticipation.

" _Shut up."_ Was his reply, but she could tell he was smiling just as she was. Then he, incredibly unco-ordinatedly, exploded a deck of cards onto the floor. Unashamedly, that made Grace howl in laughter as she clutched her stomach in pain when a stitch began to form. "Well done, you."

He recoiled back as they went into his face, " _Maybe not."_ He stated awkwardly, pointedly ignoring Graces jab at him.

After she had calmed down slightly, Grace noticed an odd ticking noise coming from the corner. She opened her mouth to tell the the Doctor, only for the man himself to beat her to it as he directed his question towards Rose.

" _You got a cat then?"_ he asked curiously, as he tried to find the source of the noise.

" _No."_ Rose said in surprise and exasperation, " _Used to a while ago…"_

But, Grace had stopped paying attention to Rose, as a plastic arm had crept out from behind the chair. It was all very _Adams Family_ as it moved, creeping along one plastic finger at a time. It slowly slunk along the floor before curling up backwards; just as if it were a cat ready to pounce. Graces eyes widened as she saw the direction in which it was about to leap. Towards her, or rather, towards the man whom had failed to notice the object coming near him.

"Doctor! To your left!" Grace yelled over the comms, making the Doctor turn his head sharply in the direction of the arm. He tried to prepare himself – he really, truly did – but there was only so much preparation one could do within the space of a few seconds. His arms reached up towards his face, but it was no use as the plastic appendage launched itself at him, wrapping its cold fingers around his neck, in what Grace assumed was a grip tighter than Lock-Jaw.

Worry flooded through her as watched her friend jerk back and forth, trying desperately to remove the arm and finally breathe. Ice pierced her veins as he fell backwards – the fight starting to leave him as the oxygen strained to reach his brain – his energy beginning to leave him.

"Come on, come on, come on." She whispered to herself in frustrated fear. Grace tapped her fingers off the console, feeling immense discomfort at not being able to help. Her eyes drifted towards the door and back to the scanner. Making a quick decision, she left the console and strode quickly towards the door. Only, when she made it halfway, did she notice the sounds had changed. No longer were the strained breaths of suffocation, but rather the quick, fleeting ones of panic. Grace ran back over the the console and grabbed the scanner towards her; eyes wide as they trailed over the picture now displayed before her. She raked a hand through her hair in worry. It wasn't the Doctor anymore that was in trouble, it was Rose.

And the plastic hand had smothered her entire face.

* * *

 **Part** **two should be up later today.**

 **-Live long and prosper**


	7. Chapter 6 - Rose Part Two

_It's a big one..._

* * *

Chapter Five Part Two

* * *

Grace stayed perfectly still as she saw the Doctor call to action, grabbing the arm himself as he began to ferociously yank it off Rose's face. Grace watched as the yanking began to tug the two over towards the coffee table, where they both collapsed in a heap on top of it, shattering it into hundreds of pieces. Grace had no time to think on how much of a shame it was, before the Doctor managed to pull the arm off Rose's face; the suction from the object giving off a large popping sound as it was removed. For a moment the Doctor seemed to hold it as it fought back, not knowing quite what do in the slightest to fix the situation. He looked about as worried as Grace felt as it jerked back and forth, desperately trying to break free. She closed her eyes desperate for a solution. All she had to do was think, think, _think_.

Then her eyelids bolted open.

"The screwdriver. Use the screwdriver!" She said in panic to the Doctor. He thankfully did exactly what she said and the arm slowly began to drain of life. They'd done it. It was over, well, for now. Grace let out a breathy laugh as she leaned against the console in relief.

"I swear one of these days you're gonna be the death of me." She muttered to herself as the stress slowly began to ease.

" _Armless."_ The Doctor joked with Rose. Only neither woman, present or otherwise found it funny in that situation. In fact Graces groan of annoyance could probably be heard throughout the entirety of the Tardis.

" _D'you think?"_ Rose said with multitudes of sarcasm as she whacked the Doctor painfully on the arm with the now benign mannequin appendage. Now at that, Grace had to laugh. So much for armless.

Knowing they had to move on, now that the threat had been taken care of, Grace got the Doctors attention, "Okay, time to get the hell out of dodge and back to the Tardis." She said wearily as she wandered over and sat back into the hump-seat. She rubbed her temples. A few more hours, just a few more hours before all this nonsense would be over with and she could have a nice, long comfortable sleep. But, the more she watched the screen, the more she realised that probably wouldn't happen as when the Doctor finally spun on his heel and began to jog away from the flat, Rose had begun to follow him.

" _You can't just go swanning off."_ Rose exclaimed to the Doctor as they began to jog down the staircase.

He turned his head back round quickly and grinned, _"Yes I can. This is me, swanning off. See ya!"_ He waved before turning back around and quickening his pace once more.

Grace sighed. The Doctor was being mysterious and if there was one thing Rose could never resist, It was a mystery. There was no way she was every going to let the man go now. Rose had fixated and, until she found out everything she possibly could about the Doctor, she would pursue him to the ends of the Earth just for a few answers. Now, that, Grace thought, was something she could very clearly see happening.

" _But that arm – that thing. It tried to kill me."_ Rose continued.

" _Ten out of ten for observation."_ The Doctor replied dully and full of sarcasm.

" _You cant just walk away. That's no it fair. You've got to tell me what's going on."_

" _No I don't."_ He replied cheerily, continuing on his merry way back towards Grace and the Tardis.

Grace smiled as the Doctor slowed down once the left the stairs, allowing Rose to catch up. He was grinning at her as she asked her questions. Rose wasn't the only one who enjoyed mysteries and the Doctor seemed to have found one in Rose, for she seemed to be one one the few people who would rather solve things than run away scared and, just like Grace, she was asking all the correct questions.

It was no wonder the Doctor had decided to take the time to hear her out.

" _Alright then, I'll go to the police. I'll tell everyone."_ Rose began _. "You said, if I did that, I'd get people killed. So, your choice. Tell me, or I'll start talking."_ She finished with a shrug, trying and failing miserably to put on a hard-looking poker face.

Grace chuckled at that, tilting hear head towards the ceiling and shaking it, "My God, Rose."

The Doctors smile seemed to grow larger at that, " _Was that supposed to sounds tough?"_ He asked in amusement, looking towards Rose.

" _Sort of?"_

" _Doesn't work._ " He cut in sharply. His tone curt, but amusement still shining in his eyes.

Grace gave Rose two seconds before she would inevitably change tack.

One

Two

" _Who are you?"_

Bingo.

Grace rolled her eyes in amusement.

 _Never could resist could you?_

" _Told you. The Doctor."_ Was his simple reply. As if that explained anything at all – ever.

" _Yeah, but Doctor what?"_ Rose rebuked. Grace smiled at that, knowing that, whilst the questions were correct in every sense of the word, it was beginning to grate on the Doctor. She loved it when things irritated him, it was just to humorous not to watch – unless he was angry, then she would get the hell out of dodge and hope that he calmed down soon. In those moments, he truly terrified her; not that she would say anything to him.

" _Just the Doctor."_

" _The Doctor."_ Rose said in disbelief as they wandered into the garage area.

" _Hello."_ He relied jovially, waving his hand at her.

 _Better than explosives,_ Grace thought in condescension.

" _Is that supposed to sound impressive?_ " Was her comeback. Grace coughed on a laugh as she grinned at the screen in front of her. Rose being clever as per usual. It was something Grace had seen thousands of times and had witnessed first-hand, but something she also sorely missed. Truly she had no idea what the atmosphere between them would ever be like if they ever decided to be in one another's company again. Honestly, she was terrified to find out.

" _Sort of."_ The Doctor mimicked, with a smile.

Rose ran up to him and leaned, closer, " _Well, come on, tell me. I've seen enough."_ She said earnestly.

Grace got up from her seat and went back over towards the scanner, "If only you knew, Rose, if only you knew." Grace said dramatically, earning a small chuckle from the Doctor as he shook his head and faced forwards once more.

" _Are you the police?"_ Rose added, genuinely.

" _No."_ The Doctor replied in disbelief and amusement.

Grace scoffed, looking down at the controls. "That'll be the day."

" _Just passing through."_ He added simply.

"Understatement." Grace added under her breath as she glanced back up at the scanner, noticing how close they both were to the Tardis.

" _I'm a long way from home."_ There was something about the tone of that sentence that caught Grace off guard. She hadn't expected him to say that, she really hadn't. Maybe his day wasn't going as well as Grace assumed it was? But, then again, she was probably just overreacting. If he had a problem he would come to her, right?

Luckily, Rose hadn't picked up on it; _"Yeah, but, why'd those things keep coming after me?"_

The Doctors tone switched back once more, making Grace thankful for Rose's intervention.

" _Oh, suddenly the entire world revolves around you. You were just an accident – you got in the way, that's all."_ He stated bluntly, not caring how he may have come off as slightly rude.

But, Rose, quite simply, wasn't having it. _"It tried to kill me."_ She insisted, gesturing towards herself, making her point known.

" _It was after me, not you. Last night, in the shop, I was there, you blundered in – almost ruined the whole thing."_ The Doctor replied in exasperation, pointing at his chest. " _This morning I was tracking it down, it was tracking me down. The only reason it fixed on you, was because you met me."_ He finished cheerily.

"Rude!" Grace called over the comms. Rude, tactless and completely and utterly… right. She sighed letting Rose take the reigns.

" _So what you're saying, is the entire world revolves around you?"_ Rose asked in disbelief, as she spoke.

Grace groaned. Not because she knew what answer the Doctor would clearly give, but because of how accurate Rose's words were. With the amount of times he had saved the Earth, it was safe to say that yes, yes the world did, in fact, revolve around him for the simple reason that it would not be there if it wasn't for his endeavours. Grace didn't like that thought, she didn't like it one bit. And if she could, at one point, find the opportunity to change that then she would hop on it and adjust things. Whilst she was fully grateful for what the Doctor had done, she didn't want the planet to rely solely on one man who may not even be there when disaster would strike. They needed another line of defence, one where humans were the reason the Earth kept spinning.

" _Sort of, yeah."_ The Doctor repeated once more, causing Grace to grimace. She didn't like that he was right, not one bit.

" _You're full of it."_ Rose said in amusement, grinning away at him. It was safe to say Rose was thoroughly enjoying this encounter.

" _Sort of, yeah."_ He iterated again, this time grinning too, clearly enjoying it as much as the woman beside him.

Rose shook her head, _"See all this plastic stuff? Who else knows about it?"_

He gave her a tight smile in return; " _No one."_

" _What, you're on your own?"_ She asked tentatively, unsure if she'd breached a touchy subject.

" _Nah, well, when I say no one, I mean me and my friend. She's really quite good at this sort of thing."_ He said distractedly, but with a hint of pride.

Grace was feeling very smug at that. Damn right was she good. She had never given the wrong information, not once – not ever.

" _I mean you lot; all you do is eat chips, go to bed and watch telly, whilst all the time, underneath you, there's a war going on."_ He continued, making Grace's pride turn into something more akin to offence. She was just about to rebuke when she realised, in fact, that she had been complaining about wanting a bed all day, was watching a screen that was basically a television and, whilst it hadn't been chips, she was eating. She smiled as he realised he, yet again, had a point; a point she found her offence waning on at the realisation that she did very much enjoy all of those things. As for the war going on? It was safe to say she was very much aware of it considering she was currently in a Tardis and helping an alien save the world against an invasion of living plastic. If she hadn't realised a war was going on by that point, then something surely must have been wrong with her.

It was then that Rose moved over to take the arm and pointed it at the Doctor _. "Right then. Tell me everything. Start from the beginning."_ She demanded softly, but with enough authority to gain the Doctors respect. So, explain he did, wether Rose decided to believe him or not, that was an entirely different matter.

Grace took it upon herself to leave to console room in that moment. She knew how long it would take to explain everything properly – lord knows it took nearly three hours to get a straight answer out of him herself. So, whilst the Doctor explained everything to Rose and the immediate danger eliminated, Grace thought it was about time to get a new fork for her pasta. She took the bowl from the console and left.

When she arrived in the kitchen, the lights snapped on and a low hum began to become noticeable, alerting her that the Tardis's immediate consciousness had come with her to keep her company. Grace smiled and lay a hand against the wall in thanks. She wondered if it could ever be possible to have a conversation with the ship. No doubt, it would be the most fascinating story she had ever heard; the story of a Tardis so old, she had been a museum piece one thousand years ago. A machine grown by the mighty Time Lords of Gallifrey, a box filled with wonders one could only hope to imagine. Now, she had become a relic – the last Tardis travelling space and time with the last Time Lord, always on an adventure. They were all that was left of Gallifrey and all that was left to each other. One man in his wonderful blue box, travelling the universe, cursed to lose everyone in the end.

Grace wasn't a fool. She knew well enough that this life meant that she would more than likely not live to see her old age, that she would die on some adventure, out into the stars and beyond the grasp of humanity. She had no doubt that she would leave the Doctor at some point, wether forced or otherwise; she was human and that label already limited her years aboard the ship. But, that was just it – years, and in a handful of those, she could live a thousand lifetimes, a million adventures and see and experience things that living a normal life back on Earth couldn't account for. Life was so short that she had to take it. No stopping, no turning back and just flinging herself into it with no reservations or regret.

Her years may be numbered, but she'd be damned if she let them go to waste. Even if it killed her in the end, she would have still lived more of a life than any she could have chosen before coming aboard the Tardis.

The microwave beeped.

She hadn't even realised she had reheated her pasta.

And those were strange thoughts to be having whilst microwaving food.

She shrugged it off easily, before taking her bowl out and grabbing a new fork. Promptly, she dove it straight into her food as she began to leave the kitchen. Shoving it into her mouth, she relaxed as she savoured the taste. She had gone far too long without eating food like that.

As she finally wandered back into the console room, Grace noticed Rose and the Doctor had made pace and were now rounding the estate, mere minutes from the Tardis. She sat back, listening and eating. Apparently, she just caught the end of his explanation.

"… _radio control?"_ Rose asked only to be immediately cut off by the Doctor.

" _Thought control."_

 _Ah, so they're at that bit._

Rose became quiet and she let everything sink in, no doubt her mind bursting with ideas, thoughts and scenarios.

The Doctor looked over at her, " _You okay?"_ He asked in worry, taking her silence as fear or sadness.

" _Yeah_." Rose slowly spoke out. " _So, who's controlling it then?"_

Once again, asking just the right questions.

" _Long story_." The Doctor replied dully, causing Grace to scoff. That was a massive understatement if there ever was one. Luckily, Rose knew perfectly how to continue the conversation, undeterred, she turned her head towards him.

" _Well, what's it all for? I mean, shop window dummies? What's that about?"_ She chuckled over her words _. "Is someone trying to take over Britain's shops?"_

To Graces surprise, the Doctor chuckled. It was controlled and tight, but still genuine. She smiled at the sound, glad for someone to have made him happier in that moment. Rose joined in too, wrinkling her nose up as she did so.

" _No."_ The Doctor broke through. " _Its not a price war."_ Before laughing more easily with Rose, grinning from ear-to-ear.

But, then, he abruptly stopped, his face turned downwards and serious. " _They wanna overthrow the human race and destroy you."_

Grace blinked, "Well damn, that got dark really quick."

" _Do you believe me?"_ He asked as he turned to Rose.

" _No_." Was her reply as she spoke with vast amounts of disbelief.

A small smile appeared at the corner of the Doctors mouth _. "But, you're still listening."_ He stated knowing full well her curiosity had been peaked.

"And that's why you keep talking to her." Grace said knowingly . "You can't resist her. You can't resist her curiosity."

Rose stopped and shook her head, just moments away from the Tardis. There was so much she still wanted to ask, wanted to know, but the only thing she finally managed to get out was; " _Really, Doctor. Who are you?"_

Grace watched silently as he too, stopped. His mouth twitching briefly as he fought to find the correct words to say. He stepped towards Rose once they finally began to formulate.

" _You know like when we were saying? About the Earth revolving?"_ He paused, waiting for her reaction. Rose looked at him to continue. The Doctor strode over towards her, a distant, yet, dream-laden look in his eyes. " _It's like when you were a kid. The first time they tell you that the world's turning and you just cant quite believe it 'cause everything's standing still."_ He paused looking into the distance, before suddenly, snapping his head back towards Rose, his words more sincere now than ever. _"I can feel it."_ He sated purposefully, grasping Rose's hand in the process. " _The turn of the Earth, the ground beneath our feet spinning at a thousand miles an hour and the entire planet is hurtling around the sun at sixty-seven-thousand miles an hour – and I can feel it. We're falling through space, you and me, clinging to the skin of this tiny, little world and if we let go?"_ He dropped her hand. " _That's who I am. Now forget me, Rose Tyler. Go home."_

He left her after that, heading towards the Tardis, heading towards Grace, leaving Rose stunned, still frozen to her spot.

The Doctor opened the door of the Tardis and finally stepped inside. His head was hung low and body seemingly weary as he wandered up to the console. Grace looked at him in silence as he flicked a few switches, before sending them both back into the time vortex, where they could take all the seconds in the universe.

Grace stood up and wandered over towards him slowly. She leant against to console next to him, but she looked at the buttons and switches, rather than looking at him.

"You never told me that." She said simply, shifting her gaze towards the matrix.

He didn't look at her either. "What?"

She shrugged. "You never told me you could feel all that, the turn of the Earth and things…" she shook her head. "Can't imagine what it must be like. You must have the biggest tolerance to motion sickness and that's brilliant if you ask me. Probably comes in handy all the time if you're ever in a boat, or car, or bike, or walking – also makes sense why you don't seem to mind getting lobbed about whenever you drive the Tardis places. Although, I'm pretty sure that may just be a pride thing 'cause you can't admit you can't…." she paused briefly, noticing how the Doctor had tuned to her and let out a small, minute and breathy laugh, "…what?"

"Nothing." He began, "Just wondering how you stay so positive all the time?" He finished sincerely.

Grace hummed in thought. "Well, that's just what it comes down to, isn't it? Time. Can't waste a moment of it now, can we?" She stated, nudging her shoulder against the Doctor who nudged back in response, a smile playing on both of their lips. But, almost instantly, hers dropped.

"I'm not positive all the time, Doctor. I pretend, just like you pretend, just like we all pretend." Grace said sadly, looking directly at the Doctor. "But, we can't focus on the hard times forever, or we'll just get stuck, unable to escape them. We have to keep moving forward no matter how much it hurts, no matter how much you just want to hide away and cry, just to escape things – there's no point to anything if we just give in like that, even if we've lost everything." She finished steadily still not breaking eye-contact with the man in front of her, only to find his eyes trained direct onto hers too. It didn't take long before Grace found herself engulfed in a tight embrace, to which she responded back with the same amount of intensity.

"You're amazing, you know? Absolutely fantastic." He spoke softly, still gripping her tightly.

She smiled over his shoulder, "Yeah?"

"Yeah." He agreed before pulling away abruptly and turning back to the console, a slight cough exiting his lips as he did so.

Grace payed it no mind, used to the sudden bouts of closeness by that point. Whenever either one of them needed it, they would hold each other close until the world stopped crumbling beneath them, and everything began to piece itself back together, one bit at a time. Then they would always continue on afterwards, as if it had never happened, as if neither of them had depended on one another in those fleeting, brief moments.

"So, where is the signal now?" Grace asked casually, leaning closer to him to get a better look at the monitor. To her dismay it was written completely in Gallifreyan.

The Doctor looked at the results. "Should be tomorrow, around eight in a pizzeria. Now, _that_ is a weird place for a Nestene Consciousness to live." He said in surprise and confusion, causing Grace to chuckle slightly.

She nudged his arm, "It's probably just another dummy, idiot." She spoke playfully, earning an eye roll in response.

Grace shook her head, pushing herself off the console and turned away.

"I'm gonna head to my room for a little bit. Let me know if something important comes up?" She asked her question in a way that made it not-at-all a question, but, rather a statement – an order wrapped up sweetly through lips of concealed deception.

"Okay." Said the Doctor, causing Grace to smile widely before bouncing off towards the exit.

"Just one more thing, before you go."

That stopped her in her tracks abruptly. She nodded.

"Stop eating in the console and take that dirty bowl with you!"

It was safe to say she did.

—-******—-

" _You know, I still say you should have come with me."_ The Doctor said in annoyance over the comms, although Grace could sense the teasing in it.

She plonked a crisp in her mouth as she sat up in her bad, portable scanner beside her. If she was going to sit this one out, she might as well have done it comfortably.

"Nah. This needs stealth. Things are stealthier with one person. Go be Stealth Man." Grace said boredly as she began to lick the flavour off her fingers.

" _Well, today Stealth Man isn't as stealthy as he would like."_

Grace wrinkled her nose at that, "What's that supposed to mean?"

He sighed, "It means Stealth Man would much prefer it if Stealth Woman took over the stealth for strictly reasons of stealth."

Grace slowly blinked, trying desperately to grasp just what-in-the-hell he was talking about. For a moment she may have believed his brain to have simply melted, before she finally began to understand what he was talking about – sort of.

"Ah, the slow decline of mental sanity. Gotta love it." She murmured to herself before continuing; "Okay, skipping past the fact that you're referring to yourself as a character and speaking in the third person, you're basically saying that I'm better at sneaking around than you are?" Grace said hopefully, wanting desperately to be on the same wavelength as the Doctors tongue-twisting mess of a sentence.

" _Basically_."

Grace smiled at that, liking how the Doctor had admitted she was better at him than something. The more she thought about the more her smile morphed and changed becoming more lopsided, filling with cockiness and accomplishment. She loved being the best at things. Her confidence grew as her slight arrogance did along side it.

" _Earth to Grace's ego, Earth to Grace's ego. Come in Grace."_ The Doctor called in over the comms, causing Grace to snap back to reality, a bashful expression taking over her features as she cleared her throat.

"Uh, present. What's going on?" She said focused, snapping back to the situation at hand. She watched as the Doctor picked up a bottle of champagne, near the waiters station, in the pizzeria.

He fiddled with the bottle as he looked towards a table, one particular table, one particular table with one particular person on it. His eyes widened, _"Well, this just got interesting."_

"What? What's going on?" Grace asked as the Doctor turned his head away before she could get so much as a glimpse of what he had seen.

" _Remember Rose? Well, she's here and with someone. And the person she's with just so happens to be giving off a very plastic signal. Rose is having a date with plastic."_

That was honestly not surprising. Grace swallowed down a laugh at the thought of it though. That was definitely something to remember for later – a plastic Mickey! But she suddenly stopped. If Mickey was plastic, where was the real one? Was he even still alive? Was he dead? Was he brutally merged into this plastic replica of himself – part flesh, part plastic? She needed to know. She needed so desperately to know if her friend was still alive. That whole ordeal suddenly didn't seem as fun anymore, not if she was about to lose someone she loved like family. Not again.

"Doctor, time to move. We need to finish this."

It was the finality in her voice that struck the Doctor as odd. Something had seriously bothered her and he needed to make sure everything was okay. The only way to do that was getting back to the Tardis and, in that moment, the only thing that stopped him from doing that was a plastic replicant and one overly curious woman. So, he moved almost instantly towards Rose and Mickey's table, bottle of champagne in hand as he approached them.

" _Would you like some champagne?"_ He asked softly, trying to subtly gain Rose's attention. He was politely dismissed, unable to even turn her head.

"I didn't think there was such a thing as too much stealth, but, I guess I was wrong." Grace snickered, dragging out words as she went along.

The Doctor couldn't reply, but he couldn't say he was happy about it as he rounded the table to the other side.

" _Ah, your champagne_." He said, speaking just slightly louder this time, trying to be less subtle. His patience beginning to wear thin and his annoyance growing thanks to Grace and her unhelpful, sarcastic comments.

Rose grew frustrated as she dismissed him once more; _"It's not… is not ours."_ She told him before continuing her conversation with Mickey, who wasn't actually Mickey. Grace squinted her eyes, wondering how on Earth Rose didn't manage to see the difference. He was shining, smooth and his hair was cut so angular it almost looked like it had been modelled after a protractor. It wasn't exactly a subtle difference you could easily miss.

" _Doesn't anyone want this champagne?"_ The Doctor tried once more.

Mickey's duplicate sighed, _"Look, we didn't order a…"_ he looked up. A sinister grin snaked its way across his face as he took in the man before him – the Doctor. He leaned forward, "… _ah, gotcha_."

The Doctor began vigorously shaking the champagne bottle, " _Don't mind me, just toasting the happy couple._ " He pointed he bottle at plastic Mickey, before promptly letting the cork loose, " _On the house!"_ He declared.

The cork rocketed out of the bottle and landed directly between plastic Mickey's eyes. Only it didn't bounce off like Grace had expected it to do, instead, it absorbed into his forehead, making the most peculiar of noises before travelling downwards. A few seconds later plastic Mickey was making strange expressions as he moved the cork about in his mouth, before propelling it far across the room.

Grace sat back in her bed, utterly shocked at what she had just seen.

"That was… that was… _what?"_ She said as her eyes opened dramatically. She had not expected that. No. No one bit.

Then before she knew it, plastic Mickey had stood up and morphed his hand into something that looked a bit like a chopping board.

Grace nodded, biting her lip, "Yep, because that's normal. As you do."

Then he started destroying tables as he haphazardly began smashing his chopping board hand into everything in is near sight. A woman screamed. People ran, but this copy of Mickey kept going, seemingly growing in aggression and joy the more that fear began to swarm around and cloud the room.

Grace got up from her bed, wandering hurriedly towards her desk as the fight escalated. The Doctor tackled fake Mickey as she sat down. He had him in some sort of headlock, twisting and turning and pulling until finally, plastic Mickey's head loudly popped off. The Doctor collapsed onto a table briefly before getting back up and holding the head directly in front of him; giving Grace a direct view of her friends fake face.

Then his eyes snapped open, a mad glint smothering them.

" _Don't think that that's gonna stop me."_

That was it, that was the final straw for Grace. She screamed loudly and lowly, not stopping, only growing in intensity. It caused the Doctor to wince as pain erupted in his ear, almost dropping the head at the noise coming through the comms.

Then it stopped and Grace sat up straight once more, pointing at the screen, shaking slightly.

"That's not natural, that needs a fucking exorcism. Oh my _god_!."

" _Can you not scream down my ear."_

Grace winced at the Doctors tone. She hoped she hadn't overloaded the comms and hurt I'm too badly,

"Sorry."

But, he didn't have time to reply as Rose set off the fire alarm. Everyone got up and ran as fast as they possibly could, leaving the pizzeria with all possible haste – whilst, behind them, the headless, plastic body was continuously wreaking havoc, showing no signs of stopping on its destructive path.

Grace watched as the Doctor and Rose ran through the kitchen, hurriedly warning everyone they came across to leave as soon as they could. It wasn't long before they were running through the janitors quarters, lumbering body still following behind. The two bolted out of the door, slamming it behind them, the plastic body pushing and bashing continuously against the door, desperate to get through – desperate to kill them.

The Doctor leant heavily against the door and pulled out the sonic screwdriver, buzzing the door with complete and utter desperation. Rose, on the other hand, kept running, not once looking back, trusting the Doctor to save them both. He locked the door and she ran towards the gates tugging and pulling at the lock, yanking at them as if they would somehow open.

" _Get the gate open! Come on use that thing to unlock it!"_

But, the Doctor paid no mind to her pleas to unlock it as he simply strode by and calmly declared his device a sonic screwdriver.

Grace let out a sigh of relief seeing his calm demeanour, although she was still anxious considering she had no idea of the strength a Nestene Duplicate could hold – it could very well break through that door at any given moment…

Okay, she was still very much – incredibly – stressed.

"Okay Doctor, grab Rose, grab yourself and get in the bloody Tardis before my nerves get any more shot than they already are."

The Doctor winced at her tone and nodded his head slightly as he headed towards the Tardis, without calling to Rose. Grace knew what he was doing. He was giving Rose the choice to follow him or not, see if her curiosity truly topped her fear. She just wished he had tested Rose at some other time that wasn't exactly then, in a highly stressful, life or death situation.

" _Tell you what? We could go in here."_ The Doctor called over his shoulder as he unlocked the door of his blue box and stepped into the Tardis.

"One down." Grace sighed to herself as she waited for Rose to come aboard.

She set the scanner to see the outside of the Tardis, only to see Rose stare and run about, seemingly distressed about the safety of hiding in a wooden box. Grace couldn't blame her for that, she just wished she would hurry up and get inside. The door banged, becoming more and more dented. It was becoming terribly clear that its would not hold for much longer. Rose needed to get into the Tardis, but instead she ran towards the gate again, yanking on the locks.

"Oh no, Rose, don't do that." Grace whispered as she raked both hands through her hair.

Then Rose turned and ran, heading straight for the Tardis and barging straight in without out a second thought.

She was safe.

They were _both_ safe.

Grace sat back and sighed, letting her hand rest over her face, only to notice Rose – in the blink of an eye – had ran as fast as she possibly could right back out of those doors. Grace's eyes widened as she watched Rose circle the Tardis, not loosing one breath until she was safe and sound inside the time machine. Luckily, a few moments later the woman in question burst through the doors and this time, she did not leave.

Knowing that both Rose and the Doctor were now both safe, Grace booted down the scanner and turned off the comms, removing them from her ears one at a time. She rolled the desk chair back and let out a shaky breath. That had been close – too close.

And then there was the other matter at hand.

Mickey.

She had no idea if he was alive or dead; one of her closest friends and Grace didn't know whether to mourn his death or celebrate that he may still be alive somewhere. She couldn't handle him dead; not now, not after last year. Not after everything she had lost. After Rose had stopped talking to her, Mickey was all she had; certainly not her brother. He helped her through so much and if that system of support were to be cut at the cord, well, she had no idea how she would handle it. She'd never met someone as caring as Mickey Smith in her life.

Then there was Rose. She must have been heartbroken, especially knowing how much the two of them loved each other. Grace had always admired their relationship for the simple fact that they adored and doted on one another.

 _Rose must be falling part._

Then a knock came from the door and it opened gently.

"Hey, Grace, everything… alright?" The Doctor spoke as he came into her room, but trailed off upon seeing her. He had expected to see her stressed and tired, but not like that.

Grace was sitting with her head in her hands, breathing even but the odd one coming out more ragged than the rest.

She removed her hands and leaned her head backwards

"No, I'm not alright."

At that the Doctor came in further and sat on the edge of Grace's bed. He spun her chair around to face him.

"What's going on?" He asked gently.

At the Grace snapped her eyelids open to look at the Doctor, desperation pooling within them like sand in an hourglass. She leaned forwards and looked him dead in the eyes.

"Mickey. He's one of my closest friends and has been with me though everything that happened to me last year – Just tell me. Is he still alive?" Grace asked as she searched her friends face for answers; hoping, begging and pleading for the miraculous news she so desperately craved.

He broke out into a small smile and reached out towards her; "That's what's got you so upset? Oh, Grace, he'll be completely fine. The Nestene Consciousness needs to keep him alive so that it can replicate him properly. If he was dead then it wouldn't have been able to know it was plastic."

"Really?" Grace asked tentatively. The Doctor simply nodded his head, causing Grace to let out a low chuckle, "Thank god."

But, then her intense relief suddenly turned more serious. Realisation sweeping over her features as she remembered the other woman that was currently on board, probably scared out of her mind, and he wasn't with her. Rose was all alone, in an alien spaceship, thinking her boyfriend had just been horribly murdered.

That just wouldn't do at all.

"You need to go and make sure Rose is okay." Grace spoke softly, nodding her head towards the door.

The Doctor shook his head, "What about you? A couple of seconds ago you were on the verge of tears…"

"…But I'm okay now." She interjected, taking his hand to reassure him, "You told me everything I needed to know to calm down. Rose hasn't had that. She'll think he's still dead. You need to tell her and make sure she's alright."

"But why can't you do that? You've not met her yet. Having another human around might help ground her? I don't know, you humans are strange." He added thoughtfully, although even he could see how flawed that plan was. Not every human was the same and he knew it. For all the Doctor understood, the two could end up arguing and hating each other. He didn't like that idea. Not one bit.

Grace let go of his hand and sat back, placing her own hand into her lap. This wasn't going to be an easy one to get out of.

 _You've really gone and dug a hole for yourself this time._

"I'm just gonna stay in here, I think. I wanted to sit this one out and that's what I'm gonna do. Rose is part of this adventure, so, unless you want to bring her aboard permanently?" She paused, giving him a knowing look, "I'll wait until this all blows over and then we can fly off again."

But that wasn't the truth at all – nowhere near it.

 _Coward_.

The doctor sighed and nodded his head. He got up off the bed and paused half way to the door. Grace spun her chair around to see him.

"Okay, fine. But, put those comms back in your ear. I'm going to connect the head up to the Tardis to trace the signal. It'll only take a few minutes before we get there, so be ready." He said, pointing his finger at the woman before him, his face serious as his eyebrows fled upwards as if they themselves were desperate to make her agree.

Grace, rolled her chair close to him, smiling cheekily as she gave him a mock salute; "Yes sir!"

The Doctors face twisted in aggravation as he groaned. He turned around and left her room without another word, but, couldn't hide the minute smile that had begun to grace his lips.

Grace watched as the door closed. She puffed up her cheeks and roughly let out all the air she had collected. Everything was as it should be – hopefully. Grace rolled her chair back to the desk, turning on her scanner and placing the comms back in her ears. Round four was just around the corner and she was going to be ready for whatever came her way. She leaned forward and sighed, ready for the bell to ring.

"Let the games begin." She muttered to herself.

—-****—-

It wasn't long after the Doctor had left Grace's room when the Tardis landed again. They were after the Nestene Consciousness itself now. Not a replicant, not a drone but, the real, big, bad, scary thing.

God, was Grace exited to see it.

And terrified. Absolutely terrified.

She was basically jumping up and down from the sheer prospect of it. A real-life Nestene Consciousness. This was either going to go really well or they were all going to burn to death in searing, blistering agony. Grace shivered, definitely glad that she was witnessing the entire ordeal through a screen rather than being anywhere near that fiery pit of death anytime soon.

Grace felt the buzzing in her earpiece as the Doctor switched on his twin pair.

" _Let's go, Grace."_ He said calmly.

She smiled at the screen, "Ready when you are."

And with that, The Doctor pelted out of the Tardis, wandering over to the pier where his signal tracking device abruptly stopped dead.

He groaned in frustration, flinging his arms out in aggravation.

" _I've lost it. I've lost the signal."_

Grace sat up straighter at that. That couldn't possibly have happed. He had such a strong lead…

"What? What do you mean you've lost it? You literally just had it!" She supplied in exasperation.

" _Well, leads tend to stop working when heads accidentally melt. It's not my fault!"_

Grace pinched the bridge of her nose and took in a deep breath. He'd melted the head. Dear _god_. If they were going to get anything done she needed to remain calm. She needed to not want to murder the Doctor. She needed to not want to repeatedly bang her head off a brick wall and she really, definitely didn't want to march right out there and take a look at his tracker herself.

She needed to be calm.

Grace let out a slow breath in attempts to ease her irritation.

It didn't work, but at least she didn't want to murder him anymore.

She was just about to answer back when another voice came from behind.

" _We've moved_." Rose sated as she wandered out of the Tardis. Grace's eyes gained a glint of amusement as she watched the blonde look around in amazement. She wondered if she had looked like that the first time she had flown in the spaceship; all stars and suns, planets and lights littering her peripheral as she realised that, yes, everything was in fact in her grasp and that nothing could ever come in between those wonders and herself ever again.

Grace raised an eyebrow at herself.

 _I guess that answers that question then._

" _But that headless thing… what happened to it?"_ Rose asked in confusion, barely able to keep up with everything that had just unceremoniously been piled on top of her.

The Doctor walked over to the other side of the bridge, anger in his ever step, "Melted with the head. Are you going to witter on all night?" He asked rudely as he stormed past, leaving Rose dumbstruck and Grace looking equal parts concerned and angry. But, she said nothing as she let him simmer; desperately hoping the Doctor wouldn't lose his temper with either Rose or herself. It was better to not speak until he had figured things out himself.

However, whilst Grace remained silent, Rose decided to tell him what was truly on her mind.

" _I'll have to tell his mother._ " She spoke distantly as she looked to the Doctor. The man himself becoming distracted in confusion as he slowly turned to face her, clearly having forgotten about the man who had been at the forefront of Grace's minutes earlier and had been be Rose's side mere hours into the past.

"Rose…" Grace spoke softly, her eyes becoming more gentle as she took in the woman before her – a woman who still had no idea that her boyfriend was still alive.

At the Doctors confused look, Rose grew annoyed; " _Mickey. I'm going to have to tell his mother he's dead and you just went and forgot him, again!"_ She spoke in anger, feeling disgusted with the man before her. Grace couldn't deny that she agreed, " _You were right, you are alien."_ Rose turned away unable to look him in the face.

Grace couldn't believe how he had gone and just completely forgotten about Mickey. He may have been alive, but that didn't mean he wasn't worth remembering.

She let out a low, humourless laugh; "No, Rose, it wasn't alien – it was heartless." Grace spoke absntly as she glared at her screen, knowing full well the Doctor may not be able to see her, but he could damn well hear her.

"Go on Doctor, tell her how he's alive. Tell her what she needs to hear. Make it right."

It was unfortunate that those words fell on deaf ears.

She'd hurt him and she knew it, she just didn't expect him to take it out on Rose by cruelly letting her believe that Mickey was dead, that she would never see him again and that she would have to mourn him. She would go to his funeral and see a casket, knowing full well his cold corpse lay inside. But he wasn't dead and none of that would happen for many years. It wasn't fair taking someone with him, only to force them to grieve under false pretences whilst throwing them into mortal danger.

" _If I did forget some kid called Mickey…_ " He began in anger, hurt seeping through his voice as his friends words pummelled their way through him, violently and efficiently.

" _Yeah he's not a kid!..."_

"… _It's because I'm trying to save the lives of every stupid ape, blundering about on this planet. Alright?"_ He spoke, voice raising with each new word uttered.

" _Alright_!" Rose threw back, exasperated and hurt that he though so little of Mickey and, by extension, the entire human race.

" _Yes! It is!"_

They were both silent after that, neither on sure how to continue. Grace simply sat at her desk shocked, mouth agape as she watched how appallingly the Doctor had just treated Rose.

 _Was that my fault?_

But, how could have that not been her doing? If she hadn't told him he was heartless… but, then again, if that was all it took for him to snap like that, then how could she be to blame? Sure she may have fuelled it slightly, but that was far too much animosity for it to have been from her alone. He was going to become enraged at Rose wether she had been there or not.

Maybe she had it all wrong.

The Doctor soon turned around and sighed, folding his arms across his chest as he began to pout like a small child. The more Grace watched him, the more she realised what all of that rage may have been. From her perspective it seemed uncannily similar to a temper tantrum; one so many children and adults go through whenever the had been told off or had been told no. The Doctor had gone through both of those things that night, so, naturally, it was no wonder he had snapped.

Grace shook her head in disbelief as she looked at her fried through the screen. It was harmless, all completely and fully benign – not that she ever expected him to do anything other than be angry – he just didn't know how to properly funnel that anger into something that didn't lash out, tat could genuinely help.

"Are you done yet, Doctor?" Grace spoke softly in a teasing way, not wanting to be as brash as she usually was, still unsure of the waters she found herself standing in.

The Doctor pouted more and shook his head, causing grace to relax as the tension left her. He was back to normal, well, as normal as one rage-prone Time Lord could get.

" _If you're an alien, how come you sound like you're from the north?"_ Rose asked from the distance, drawing both the doctor and Grace's attention respectively towards her.

" _Lots of planets have a north."_ Was his indignant reply.

Grace scoffed at that and rolled her eyes, "Yes, because every planet's north just so happens to have a Mancunian accent on hand."

" _Shut up."_ The Doctor told her over the comms.

Rose looked slightly taken aback, sure that was meant for her; _"Oi! What you telling me to shut up for?"_

The Doctor rolled his eyes, " _It wasn't for you. My friend_ …" he pointed to his ears, " _is just being very annoying and unhelpful through the communication earpieces."_

" _Oh."_ Rose said, before shaking her head and pointing at the Tardis, " _Well, what's that then? What's a police public call box?"_ She asked as she changed the conversation once more.

" _It's a police telephone box, from the nineteen-fifty's_." He began shocked, but, slowly and surly, that shock transformed into pure unparalleled excitement as he went over towards it, a large grin overtaking his face.

" _It's a disguise_." He finished with all the pride in the world, stoking the side of the Tardis.

"The Doctor and his one true love." Grace said, a whimsical and far away tone skating through her syllables.

Grace zoned out slightly after that as she began to simply spin about in her chair out of boredom, desperate for the Doctor and Rose to get a move on. After a few seconds, she grabbed the desk and pulled herself forward, eyes intent on the screen as she rested her head on her palm.

" _How do we kill it?"_

" _Anti-plastic."_

" _Anti-plastic?"_

" _Anti-plastic."_

"I'm guessing it's anti-plastic then?" Grace said as a dull tone took over her voice.

" _Stop being unhelpful."_ The Doctor said in irritation.

Grace rolled her eyes; "Fine I'll be helpful then. The transmitter needs to be huge, like a big round disk, right in the centre of London. Shouldn't be hard to miss."

The Doctor let out a frustrated ' _thank you_ ' before wandering over towards the edge of the bridge.

" _My friend said the transmitter is a giant disk in the middle of London. How can you hide something that big in a city this small?_ " He questioned Rose in impatience. At her look of confusion, he continued, " _The Nestene Consciousness need to boost its signal to control every plastic thing in London. The transmitter should be a huge, metal circular thing, slap bang in the middle of London; like a dish, like a wheel, close to where were standing – it must be completely invisible._ " He finished, rubbing his hands together in anxiousness.

Rose simply stared at him in disbelief and, quite frankly, so did Grace. He couldn't be serious. He just couldn't.

" _What_?" He asked Rose upon seeing her incredulous expression. She simply looked behind him, the Doctor following her gaze, but it came barrelling back as he could not see what was clearly in front of him.

The London Eye.

That was definitely a yes on being serious then.

" _What_?" He asked again after looking back over his shoulder, only for Rose to gesture less subtly behind him and Grace to let her head crash loudly onto her desk.

He looked over his shoulder again. Alas, he still saw nothing; " _What is it? What?"_

"Turn your head and look at the thing behind you, moron." Grace grumbled through her arms.

He turned his head once more and looked at what was enforce him; only this time, were there was confusion, now clarity and realisation overtook him. He saw it. _Finally_ , he saw it. A large grin appeared brightly on his face.

" _Oh, fantastic._ "

He immediately bolted to his left, leaving Rose to follow after him.

—-****—-

When they finally arrived at the bottom of the London eye, they stopped abruptly as The Doctor looked at the entrance.

" _Plastic, all over the world, every artificial thing waiting to come alive."_ He spoke gently as he stared out onto the Thames. He looked back towards Rose, " _The phones, the dummies the wires…"_

"… _The breast implants._ " Rose added in unison with Grace, causing the latter to let out few laughs at their similar thought process.

" _You two are just as unhelpful as each other."_ The Doctor raised an eyebrow, folding his arms as he spoke in amused distain. However, if wasn't long fore his thoughts streamlined back onto the task at hand, _"There's the transmitter. The Nestene Consciousness can't be far away…"_ He trailed off, not noticing in the slightest that the young woman beside him had fled to the right, quickly leaving, without a trace to the top of a set of stairs that led beneath the Thames.

"Doctor, to your right." Grace said patiently as she gestured towards that direction, despite knowing full well he couldn't see her.

His head drifted towards the right before he sprinted after Rose. Grace let out a large grin at that, knowing that once someone got the Doctor to follow them, they had his respect. That respect could go an awful long way if they were lucky enough.

The Doctor stopped beside Rose and grinned as he leant over her shoulder for a better look. Excitement radiating off him as he began to bounce on the balls of his feet in anticipation. This was what he lived for, what he craved and what he loved to share. Doing this alone was fine, but having two people with him, giving just as much excitement made his exuberance manifest unbelievably fast; especially Grace. Even if Rose was not there he wouldn't mind, so long as Grace was beside him, physically or not.

" _Let go down then."_ He rattled each word in quick succession, before taking off once more, his grin giving the Cheshire Cat a run for its money as he did so.

Grace watched as the the pair ran feverishly down the steps, running quicker and quicker, faster and faster, until they had finally found what they were looking for. The Doctor bent over and started spinning the circular handle on the hatch. It was only a few seconds before it opened and was pulled aside, an ominous red glow pouring from the opening that has just been uncovered.

That was it.

Grace pushed back the hair that had fallen into her face and tucked it neatly behind her ear. She rolled her shoulders and took long blinks, letting out a long sigh as she did so.

"I've got your back, Doctor. Once more unto the breach." She said softly and focused, trailing off towards the end.

The Doctor chuckled slightly, shaking his head; "You and your Shakespeare."

"Don't pretend you don't like it." She bit back half-heartedly, straitening herself in her chair. Smiling wryly to herself.

Rose watched The Doctor converse with the mystery woman whom had yet to make an appearance. She had so many thoughts, ideas and questions on who this person could possibly be. Obviously it was completely unlikely that she knew the Doctors friend – it was a big universe after all – but she couldn't help but notice small similarities between that mysterious woman and an old friend of hers that she had purposefully stopped talking to over a year ago.

It was probably a coincidence.

Well, it was that or the Doctor had lost it and never quite gotten over the imaginary friend phase… but, probably a coincidence. Either way she never spoke, never uttered a single word on the matter as she carefully watched the conversation end and followed the Doctors lead as he began to descend the ladder into the lair of the Nestene Consciousness.

It was significantly warmer once they had reached the bottom of the ladder and significantly lacking one giant soup of living plastic. They were in a small room with chains and wires hanging from the ceiling, that had a large metal door at the opposite end to them. The Doctor slowly moved towards the door, looking over his shoulder to make sure Rose was following and was okay.

Grace was anxiously wrapping her fingers off the desk, as they descended he stairs into an area that looked like there'd just stumbled onto the set of the Crystal Maze. But, those thoughts were quickly lost when something very wrong began to happen. She, or rather the Tardis, was moving. It wasn't the usual feeling she felt when in the vortex either, it was slow and steady as if it were trapped under the watchful gaze of a slow-motion camera. Graces eyes widened as she stood up from her chair.

"Doctor, something's wrong with the Tardis."

But, no reply came.

Instead she took it upon herself to leave her room, making sure to take the scanner with her before she left. Quickly, she ran towards the console room, desperate to see what was going on beyond the blue doors, however, she was abruptly stopped when the Tardis violently came to a halt, sending Grace tumbling to her knees due to the intense impact. She groaned in pain as she slowly got herself back to her feet, brushing off the dust on her legs and rubbing them slightly in hopes of making them feel even just slightly better. It may have worked but that sure as hell didn't mean it wasn't going to hurt the next day.

It wasn't long before she took off running again. Grace burst though the doors of the console room panting, her head darting around in short, sharp bursts before she made her way towards the Tardis doors. She wasted no time before she pushed herself through them.

Then she stopped.

Before her was not the bridge she had been on top of mere moments before. Gone was the view of the Thames, gone was the London Eye – now, in its place, was a storage room that had the exact same features that defined the previous room Rose and the Doctor had just exited out of. Only this time she wasn't alone.

Autons stood before her, slowly, but surly turning their way towards Grace. A plastic hand reached out and Grace bolted back into the Tardis, its fingers just grazing her back as she slammed the doors behind her.

She slowly slid downwards against the doors, the Autons banging against them harshly as they tried desperately to attain her for themselves. Grace threaded a shaky hand through her hair and gulped, not knowing in the slightest what to do in a situation such as that. She was a hostage to the Nestene Consciousness and had no means of escaping with her life.

She raised a hand to her ear, holding it as if it was a vital necessity to communicate; "So… uh… bad news," She began nervously, "The Autons have taken the Tardis. We're in some sort of storage room, so, if you can come and get us when you're done that would be very much appreciated." She finished and let out a very watery, and barely terror concealed laugh. Only, once again there was no reply.

This worried Grace, worried her greatly. She took out the earpiece and gave it a few taps before putting it back in; "Hello? Hello, Doctor? Are you there? If you're there please say something?" But, Grace knew she would only get silence once more. It had become glaringly obvious in that moment that the comms were dead, that the Nestene Consciousness had somehow blocked the signal and left Grace isolated from the Doctor, giving the Consciousness an incredible advantage over him now that his second pair of eyes had been blinded.

Getting to her feet, Grace began to walk over to the control monitor and kept watching her friends negotiate the invading alien, glaring and rolling her eyes every-so-often whenever one of the dummies tried to break into the spaceship.

 _Please be okay without me._

— _****—_

" _I seek audience with the Nestene Consciousness, under peaceful contract – according to convention fifteen of the Shadow Proclamation."_ The Doctor spoke loudly and powerfully as he leaned over the railing. He was concerned that Grace had failed to make any comments over the course of the last few minutes. It worried him deeply, however, with the Consciousness right before his very eyes, he decided to ignore the niggling feeling that something was deeply wrong and instead, focused solely on the alien before him.

The orange gloop of an alien gurgled and screamed in the vat it resided.

The Doctor smiled and his eyes widened; "Thank you. May I approach?"

The Nestene Consciousness gurgled once more.

 _I bet Grace is loving this._

The Doctor rolled his eyes as he watched Rose dart towards Mickey, who was completely and wholly unscathed. He shook his head and followed after her, slowly tapering down the steps towards the man held captive.

"Are you alright?" Rose asked hurriedly as she grabbed onto his shoulders. Mickey quickly brought his index finder to his lips and shushed her.

He looked over his shoulder; "That thing down there… the liquid, Rose, it can talk." Mickey's words came out wobbled as he fought the urge to break down, right then and there and without an ounce of shame.

"You're stinking." Was Rose's only reply before she quickly glanced back towards the Doctor. "Doctor he's alive." She called out loudly.

"That was always a possibility. Keep him alive to maintain a copy." The Doctor replied carelessly.

Grace would have made a comment just then and he knew it. Something was inherently wrong with the entire situation; Rose beginning to drift from his thought as he descended the stairs. For whatever reason, Grace wasn't talking and that meant either one of two things; one – she accidentally turned the comms off – or, two – something had happened to her. Whatever it was caused a flurry of panic to wash through him as he rushed over towards the Consciousness, intent on finally putting everything to an end and finding the answers he needed on his friend. However, in that moment, it didn't matter what had happened. The comms no longer held her voice.

He was all alone.

"You knew that and you never said." Rose stated incredulously.

The Doctor turned his head towards her. "Can we keep he domestics outside. Thank you." He told her condescendingly and busied himself with getting towards the invading alien that may have been behind Grace's silence.

He stepped out onto a stage-like platform to address the Consciousness, fire blazing in troughs either side or him, giving him an air of control and power one may miss entirely if first glancing upon the man.

—****—

" _Am I addressing the Consciousness?"_

Grace watched the Doctor as he spoke. His voice was light and harmless, but his face – especially when alight with the red glow of the flames – spoke an entirely different story. Grace, who had returned to her room, felt suddenly very nervous as she witnessed the fury spread across his features like a ghastly wound, infected and bloody. She rubbed at the back of her head as she watched the Doctor draw nearer, worry swimming deeper into her eyes every passing second.

The Nestene Consciousness gurgled.

" _Thank you. You infiltrated this civilisation by ways of warped, shunt technology. So, may I suggest it's the greatest respect if you shunt off?"_ The Doctor told the alien, mocking it greatly as he went along. He gave a tight-lipped, toothless grin which could have been enough to unsettle, and make even the most hardened serial-killer, cry.

Grace pinched he bridge of her nose and let a large bout of air charge its way through her nostrils. He was going to get them all killed and if he got her killed here was no way she wasn't going to kill him back, afterlife be damned.

" _Oh, don't give me that. This is an invasion, plain and simple – don't talk about constitutional rights."_ The Doctor declared in disbelief, furrowing his eyebrows as he looked downwards.

Grace raised an eyebrow simply wondering what the constitution of a gelatinous alien with an affinity for possessing and animating shop window mannequins could possibly have.

" _I am talking!"_ The Doctor roared at the Nestene Consciousness, his eyes becoming dimmer as the anger began to swim within their icy depths. His teeth gritted together as his teasing demeanour became deadly still. The Nestene Consciousness's life was in his hands, one wrong move and it would be sealing its own death sentence and execution. Grace stayed eerily quiet and still. She didn't breathe, as if the air itself were too toxic to consume.

" _This planet is just starting. These stupid little people have only just learned how to walk, but they're capable of so much more! I am asking you on their behalf…_ " The doctor began, but Grace stopped paying attention immediately.

It had become terribly clear those short few moments contained two terrifyingly clear things. The first was that the Tardis had begun to move once more, the Autons talking her who-knows-where, the second this that horrified Grace immensely was that two Autons were inching their way closer to the Doctor. It was obvious that they were going to try and push him over the ledge.

Grace opened her mouth to warn him, but instantly stopped, remembering he couldn't hear her. She couldn't help – couldn't do anything. Never in her life had she felt so utterly useless before. Her friend may be inches away from death and she couldn't do a damn thing! She couldn't even get out of her own ill-fated predicament.

Grace tugged on her hair as she watched the scene unfurl.

" _Doctor_!" Rose called, but by the time the Doctor reacted it was too late. Two Autons were now firmly holding him in a vice-like grip. One of them took out the vial of anti-plastic and showed it to is master, whilst the other held firm on the Doctor despite his fruitless protests.

" _It only had that for insurance. I wasn't gonna use it."_ He spoke to reassure the Nestene Consciousness, but even he couldn't hide the desperation that seeped into ever word.

Grace had been so focused on the scene that she barely remembered that she too was in a very dire situation – that was until she ended up being thrown from her chair and harshly tossed to the ground. She hissed in pain before launching herself back onto her chair, not wasting one second of precious time.

"… _I'm not your enemy, I swear, I'm not."_ He looked like he was about to cry, or at least Grace thought so; although, it was hard to keep thinking when being tossed about and barely being able to keep a grip on anything. She felt her body slowly become warmer. It didn't take a genius to realise where she was being take – where she had arrived.

" _No, no, no! Honestly, no!"_ The Doctor cried as he turned around the see his Tardis. Grace wished she could talk to him, wished she could tell him she was fine and that they would be fine, even if it was only to reassure herself. _"Yes, that's my ship._ " He continued, turning his head back and forth between the Tardis and his captor. " _That's not true! I was there, I fought in the war, it wasn't my fault!"_ His voice was thick with emotion as he finished.

Grace watched as tears began to build in his eyes. It was clear he was reliving his past, clear his mind was starting to be tossed into devastating memories that would destroy even the most strong of all people.

But, it was the next few words utter that broke Grace's heart and shattered it into fragmented pieces.

" _I couldn't dave your world, I couldn't save any of them!"_

Grace sat back, her own eyes pooling with salty liquid as the Doctors words plowed through her.

" _What are they doing?"_ Rose asked, fright in her voice. The Doctor and Grace drew their attention towards her

The Doctor quickly looked towards her, quickly gaining control of his voice before he spoke; "I _t's the Tardis and my friend. The ship's been identified as superior technology and my friend as an unknown entity. Its terrified. Its going into the final phase. Its starting the invasion."_

That wasn't good, that wasn't anywhere remotely near good at all.

 _What can we do?_

" _Run, Rose. Go on get out of here whilst you still can!"_

Grace completely agreed with him. Rose wasn't part of that mess – it wasn't her problem. She needed to get out and run back home to her mother before all hell broke loose.

Grace's foot jumped rapidly up and down.

The Consciousness screeched.

The Doctor looked hopelessly into the vast expanse of orange.

But, Rose's eyes were focused. She pushed her hair back and secured them behind her ears. She pulled out her phone. " _Mum_?"

Grace sighed, glad she was at least calling her mother and making sure she was safe. For a brief second, Grace glanced at her own phone, wondering if she should call her brother. She shook her head quickly dismissing the idea. He was in America and besides, it wasn't an important enough occasion for the call to be warranted. She didn't particularly want to get screamed at and abandoned by the only family member she had left.

Grace flinched as a giant beam of lightning bolted up into the ceiling. Her eyes widening dramatically as her mind snapped back into her current reality.

" _It's the activation signal. It's transmitting."_ The Doctor called desperately

It looked hopeless. So utterly and completely hopeless. Grace lay her head in her arm, top half peeking over them as she watched the unstoppable tragedy which was just about strike the Earth.

" _It's the end of the world."_ Rose spoke softly, her voice wavering.

"Sure looks like it Rose." Grace spoke gently back.

Rose ran over to the Tardis, shaking and pulling at the doors, but they wouldn't help; " _Hey! Whoever in here please open the doors? I don't have a key!"_ She directed the last bit towards Mickey, but it was clear who was recipient of the first bit, only, Grace couldn't open the door even if she tried. The ship was on lockdown and the only person now could now open it was the Doctor… but he was too busy fighting for his life against two deranged Autons.

Rose slowly began to rise to her feet, Grace noticed out the corner of her eyes, but payed her no mind, too focused on the battle atop the ledge than her former friends movements.

" _Just leave him!"_ Mickey said, waving his arm dramatically and clinging onto Rose's ld like a small child. Grace glared at him through the screen, not liking one bit the way he was speaking. He was so desperate to leave someone for dead; that wasn't like the Mickey she knew, not at all. He may have been a coward, but he never was when the situation called for him to need confidence.

Rose suddenly ran off to the side, catching and drawing Grace's attention once more.

" _There's nothing you can do!"_ Mickey called, but no one listened.

Rose grabbed and axe and held it steady above her head. " _I've got no A levels, no life, no job, no future."_ She laughed sadly. " _But, I'll tell you what I have got._ " She swung the axe, speaking lower and more confident, grabbing the ropes and chains that fell down. " _Jericho Street Junior School under-sevens gymnastics team."_ She turned round, as mile gracing her face despite the obvious fear in her eyes. _"I got the bronze!"_

And with the she took a running jump and swung off the platform and into the Auton holding The Doctor, allowing him to flip the plastic over his shoulder into the vat. She swung into the other one, forcing it to drown the anti-plastic downwards also.

Grace cringed as the pain-filled cries of the Nestene Consciousness echoed throughout the building. She wanted to feel bad for the creature, but she just couldn't. It had just tried to murder five-billion people and had probably succeeded on shaving a few numbers off that moniker. However, it was still very unpleasant to listen to.

Rose swung into the Doctor. He caught her, holding her steady as he called her name. He grinned at her.

" _Now we're in trouble."_ He sad excitedly as he led Rose back to the Tardis, the walls crumbling down around them as the room violently quaked. Explosions sounded off behind them as they finally reached the door and entered.

Grace sighed as they began to materialise.

 _Aren't we always?_

—****—

When they finally re-appeared, they were in the middle of an alleyway. Mickey burst through the Tardis doors, whimpering as he cowered next to a few wooden pallets. Rose followed after him, the Doctor just stood in the doorway, smiling at the two in front of him.

Grace had left her room and was standing slightly hidden from the doorway as she listened intently. Her arms folded and a cheeky smile of her own spreading across her lips as she leant against the railing.

"Fat lot of good you were!" She heard Rose holler at Mickey, causing her to snicker at how much Rose sounded like her mum.

The noise caught the Doctors attention. He turned his head around and grinned massively upon seeing Grace. He had just opened his mouth speak when Grace hurriedly put her finger to her lips and waved him off with her right hand. He looked slightly indignant, before he complied, turning his head back towards the young couple once more. Grace rolled her eyes playfully and continued to listen.

"Nestene Consciousness? Easy." The Doctor declared with a snap of his fingers. Grace let out a disgruntled noise, to which the Doctor briefly looked over his shoulders with a half-hearted glare.

"You were useless in there! You'd be dead if it wasn't for be. Both of you." Rose said in amusement gesturing between the man and his box.

"Yes we would." He replied sombrely. "Thank you."

He clapped his hands together and rubbed the anxiously. "Right then, I'll be off, unless… uh… I don't know. You could come with us?"

Grace smiled, knowing that this was exactly the kind of thing that Rose needed in her life. Ever since they were kids they had both dreamt of adventure. Now one of them had it, it would be such a shame for the other to remain trapped within a life that felt meaningless.

"It's not just a London hopper, you know? It ca go anywhere in the universe free of charge."

The question was tempting, but something inside Grace told her that it wasn't enough to tempt her once friend to come along with them. Her smile turned slightly sad and wistful at the notion.

"Don't! He's an alien. He's a thing." Mickey exclaimed with a remarkable amount of disgust thrown in. Grace was truly horrified by the way her friend was acting. She had never seen that side of him before and hoped he wasn't that overwhelmingly hateful towards anything that even slightly scared him due to how different it was.

"He's not invited."

Grace couldn't agree more.

"What do you think? You could stay here, fill your life with work and food and sleep, or you could go… anywhere." The question hung around awkwardly in the air for a few seconds, before Rose finally responded.

"Is it always this dangerous?"

"Yeah."

Mickey suddenly attached himself to Rose, effectively making her decision for her

"Yeah I can't… um… I've got to go and find my mum and someone's got to look after this stupid lump, so…" Rose excused, giving less conviction than one would expect for turning down the trip of a lifetime.

"Okay." The doctor said tightly. "See you around."

The the both stared at each other a moment before the Doctor tuned into the Tardis, closing the doors on Rose, for what seemed in that moment, permanently.

Grace watched as the Doctor quietly sent the ship into the vortex, a largely amused smile settling on her face as she shook her head in disbelief. She left the railing and moved over towards him, leaning against the console as she stared at him, a mischievous glint shining in her eyes. He had forgotten something. Something that was so integral the the Tardis and so mind blowingly obvious that Grace had to withhold her laughter.

"What?" He asked her in annoyance, turning his head towards her, a pointed look in his eyes.

She wrapped her fingers off the console absently and shook her head. "Oh, nothing. Its just… you seem to have forgotten to mention something to Rose before we left." She said innocently, looking towards the rotor.

"And that would be?" He pressed in irritation.

Grace hummed. "Time and Relative Dimension in Space, Doctor. You forgot to cover the most important component of all."

It was distinctly clear the moment it dawned on him as he began grin manically, flipping the switches and setting he co-ordinates before launching the Tardis back towards Rose. When they landed, both parties were grinning at each other like the mad man and woman they were.

"You're brilliant." He declared, still staring at Grace.

She shrugged her shoulders. "I try. Now go and get Rose before she leaves." She said nodding towards the doors. He nodded at her vehemently, before charging towards the doors and opening them.

"By the way, did I mention it also travels in time?"

The doctor wandered back into the Tardis and left the door open as he approached the console. She would come, he was sure of it. Grace moved slightly off to the side, out of Rose's line of sight. She didn't want to change her mind simply because she was there. Rose deserved to see the stars and with her own presence there? She highly doubted Rose would have agreed, even with the added bonus of time Tavel.

"Thanks." Rose said to Mickey.

"For what?"

"Exactly.

After a leaving a kiss on her boyfriends cheek, Rose ran as fast as she possibly could into Tardis, not once looking back as the doors slammed behind her and the Doctor sent the Tardis back off into the vortex. Her smile was growing and growing as the excitement seemed to traverse the normal boundaries of what was assumed possible, well, that was until she noticed one achingly familiar woman sitting on a jump seat at the far end of the console. All of the colour steadily dissolved from her face as distrust and anger slowly filled the empty spaces. Her gaze hardened as all the Marth and joy fled behind the walls that had been hurriedly constructed for one reason and he reason only. To keep Grace Blakely out.

Grace herself stared to feel unease build within her as she stood up from her seat, and stared blankly at Rose – her entire face devoid of any emotion as her eyes locked onto Rose's, taunting her to look away first.

The Doctor clapped loudly, but neither noticed, too busy coming to terms with the fact that they were now within the same vicinity of one other after more than a year of anger and hurt. To say this interaction had been left a long time was an understatement, maybe it was too long.

"Right, anywhere, anytime, where are we going then? Past or future?" he asked in oblivious excitement, before he suddenly came to a massive realisation. "Oh! You two haven't met yet. I'm sure you two will get along great, considering how in tandem you were earlier. Okay, so, Rose, this is…"

"… Grace." Rose cut in sharply, with enough ice to give one hypothermia. The Doctor looked between the two dumfounded.

"Hello Rose." Grace replied blankly still staring straight through the other woman.

The Doctor narrowed his eyes. "You two know each other then?"

Grace tired not to laugh for, once again, that was a monumental understatement.

* * *

 **Soo, not quite the same day, but I'm consistantly inconsistant, so what's new?**

 **I'm not sure how well this technically worked out, but I'm proud of it, even if only for the reson I got past the sixth chaper block i have. So, this is really the first thig I've ever written that's gotten past six chapters and I couldnt be more happy.**

 **Anyways please, please, please leave a comment and let me know what you think feel and, if you have any thoeries please share them because it's always fun seeing where peoples minds go.**

 **(please favoutie and follow too, would be much abliged.)**

 **-live long and prosper**


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